Hispanic adolescent delinquency and the family: a discussion of sociocultural influences.

In order to make prevention and intervention services more relevant to Hispanic adolescents and their families, it has been argued that features of the Hispanic culture governing familial relations, primarily familism and family solidarity, need to be emphasized in the treatment of delinquent youth. Yet, analysis of data from a longitudinal survey of 1,077 male Puerto Rican adolescents raises questions as to the precise impact of family experiences on subsequent delinquency involvement, especially as to sociocultural influences of family solidarity and familism. Significance was found only for time spent on weekends and evenings with family members--factors which are not viewed as "cultural." The impact of spending more time with family members on the weekends and evenings and noninvolvement in delinquent behavior suggest concern with reduction in opportunity for delinquency, especially on weekends and evenings, prime time for delinquent behavior.