Reviews current research on the effects on parents of children’s antisocial behavior and the parental factors that can contribute to the development of delinquent behavior and also suggests directions for effective interventions. An increasing body of research supports the notion that troublesome and delinquent behavior disrupts family control and family climate, undermining precisely those parenting processes that are important in managing challenging adolescents. The article discusses the evolution of theories of the relationship between early conduct problems and parenting; and new studies that address the waning role parents play in terms of their influence on adolescents and the reciprocal effects of parent-child attachment, supervision, and delinquency in early adolescence. Implications for intervention include the importance of fostering engagement with parents and decreasing blame, acknowledging and assessing the impact of the adolescent’s behavior on family members, emphasizing family-centered and strengths-focused practice, teaching anger-control techniques that family members can use to prevent or interrupt an escalating coercive cycle, providing support networks for parents, and holding adolescents responsible for their behavior by promoting self-control. Interventions that address the disruptive effects of delinquent children’s behavior on their parents may resonate better with families’ experiences and yield positive outcomes.
