Arlena Blum

she/her

Education: Bachelor of Science in social work (December 2016)

McNair Project: The Power of Support: The Role of Parental Attachment in Reducing Juvenile Delinquency (2015)

Mentor: Don Kurtz, Ph.D.

The purpose of this research is to measure the effect of differing family structures on juvenile delinquency rates. Relevant data was derived from the latest available Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) survey; the data set was downloaded from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPCR)website. The variables chosen had to connect with the research that was being conducted. There were five delinquent variables as well as the three most common families defined as mother only, father only, and both mother and father. The chosen variables were ran in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to find if they agree with our theory that living in an intact family will lessen the delinquent acts. The research also covers the attachment levels of the juveniles to their parents. For this research, we applied three theories: Supportive Theory, Coercive Theory, and Intergraded Theory and upon analysis of this data, it became clear that most of the data we have looked at thus far has proven our theory.