The Causes of Adolescent Anti-Social Behaviour
The following paper reviews two studies in the field of developmental psychology; more specifically, it focuses upon adolescent antisocial behaviour. The researchers of these two studies published their results in reputable psychology journals. The first study dealt with children who were in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Researchers gave a survey to the 163 participants, (72 males and 91 females). The survey listed 23 antisocial behaviours, and the young adolescents reported whether they had ever participated in each activity. Then each subject reported how frequently he or she had engaged in these activities over the past year. Because of the significant differences between how males and females answered 33% of the yes/no questions, researchers conducted factor analyses by gender. This study found that there are many different reasons for adolescent antisocial behaviour. The researchers found that male adolescents tended to be more violent than females. Females who did exhibit violence did not direct their aggression at individuals as males did. Antisocial females tended to engage in other types of deviant behaviours, such as class cutting and drunkenness, more than their male counterparts.
The first study dealt briefly with reasons. Because I have more questions about female antisocial behaviour, I can focus my study on just girls. I can observe each girl's playtime behaviours and give the mothers surveys to evaluate their daughters' behaviours. The behaviours do not cease there; they continue into adolescence. "A Gender-Linked Exploratory Factor Analysis of Antisocial Behavior in Young Adolescents". One reason for their behaviour is academic problems, which seems unrelated. The second study had similar results; however, it went further in explaining the causes of adolescent antisocial behaviours. They do not appear to be quite so deviant as their male counterparts. A common phenomenon for individuals in this stage of life is adolescent egocentricity, where an individual feels that the world revolves around them. The adolescents in the study may not see their behaviours as deviant or harmful. Perha!ps from studying subjects at an earlier age, I could find an underlying cause for both the predictor and the deviant behaviours. Researchers conducted a longitudinal study where they studied 314 third, forth, and fifth graders. First, how much does nature influence the gender difference, and what kind of a role does nurture play? In addition, I wonder why poor academic performance causes females to behave antisocially, and why academic performance does not effect their male counterparts in the same way.
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