Delinquency in incarcerated male adolescents is associated with single parenthood, exposure to more violence at home and in the community, and poorer self-image.

Croat Med J. 2013 Oct; 54(5): 460–468. doi: 10.3325/cmj.2013.54.460 PMCID: PMC3816563 PMID: 24170725 Delinquency in incarcerated male adolescents is associated with single parenthood, exposure to more violence at home and in the community, and poorer self-image Stanislava Erdelja,1 Petra Vokal,2 Marija Bolfan,2 Sergej Augustin Erdelja,3 Branka Begovac,2 and Ivan Begovac2 Stanislava Erdelja 1Center for social welfare, Donja Stubica, Croatia Find articles by Stanislava Erdelja Petra Vokal 2Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Clinical Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia Find articles by Petra Vokal Marija Bolfan 2Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Clinical Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia Find articles by Marija Bolfan Sergej Augustin Erdelja 3Center for social welfare, Krapina, Croatia Find articles by Sergej Augustin Erdelja Branka Begovac 2Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Clinical Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia Find articles by Branka Begovac Ivan Begovac 2Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Clinical Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia Find articles by Ivan Begovac Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer 1Center for social welfare, Donja Stubica, Croatia 2Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Clinical Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia 3Center for social welfare, Krapina, Croatia Correspondence to: Ivan Begovac Department of psychological medicine School of Medicine, University Zagreb Clinical hospital center Kišpatićeva 12 HR- 10000 Zagreb, Croatia Received 2012 Nov 16; Accepted 2013 Oct 1. Copyright © 2013 by the Croatian Medical Journal. All rights reserved. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Aim To assess the relationships between delinquency and demographic and family variables, academic performance, war stressors, home/community, school, and media violence exposure, self-image, and psychopathology. Methods This cross-sectional study included 100 delinquent, incarcerated male adolescents and 100 matched schoolchildren from Croatia. It lasted from January 2008 to June 2009, and used socio-demographic questionnaire, questionnaire on children’s stressful and traumatic war experiences, exposure to violence scale, the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire, and Youth Self-Report Questionnaire. Results Logistic regression analysis showed that delinquency in incarcerated adolescents was more likely related to having parents who did not live together (odds ratio [OR] 2.40; confidence interval [CI] 1.18-4.90, P = 0.015), being more exposed to violence at home/community (OR 3.84; CI 1.58-9.34, P = 0.003), and having poorer self-image (OR 1.09; CI = 1.03-1.16, P < 0.002). Conclusion Preventive and therapeutic interventions in incarcerated delinquents should be specifically targeted toward single parenthood, family factors, trauma oriented interventions, and focused on multiple dimensions of self-concept of adolescents. Delinquency is associated with many risk factors, including demographic, genetic, and family characteristics (single parenthood) or academic performance. Many studies have focused on exposure to various forms of violence – in the family or home; community and neighborhood; in school and peer groups; and the media, but other risk factors have also found to be important, such as poorer self-image, various forms of psychopathology, and social characteristics (neighborhoods characterized by poverty) (1-15). Most of the studies dealing with delinquency aim to develop therapeutic interventions in relation to the obtained factors or mediators (9,11,16). There are relatively few studies on incarcerated adolescents. Many report on delinquents’ traumatic experiences, posttraumatic stress disorder, and importance of developmental tasks of adolescence and parental monitoring (14,17,18). Therapeutic interventions are specifically directed toward assessment and intervention of trauma and psychopathology, and family interventions are used very often. There are not many studies on delinquents in Croatia and most of them deal with a model that takes into account the interplay between protective and risk factors (19-21). Factors that are often mentioned are parental distrust and punishment, and family dysfunctionality (22-24). The prevalence of delinquency in the last few years has not been reducing (25), which suggests that the current preventive and therapeutic efforts have not been sufficient (25). Another important factor that has to be considered when studying delinquency in Croatia is the influence of Croatian War for Independence 1991-1995. The relationship between war experiences (direct or indirect) and the development of delinquency in adolescents has been relatively rarely described, with contradictory findings. Some studies found no association between the impact of war and bullying (26), whereas others found a relationship between aggressiveness in child refugees and their past war experiences (27) or experiences of their parents, war veterans (28). Besides war-related violence, we expected that delinquency was related to the exposure to other types of violence, eg, violence at home (29). Finally, we also expected an association with poorer self-image (8) and the presence of significant psychopathological syndromes (7). Our aim was therefore to examine the relationship between demographic, family factors, academic performance, exposure to violence in different contexts (home, community, school, media, war related stress), psychopathology, and delinquency. Methods Participants This study was conducted from January 2008 to June 2009 and included delinquent male adolescents aged 14-18 years. We made a preliminary calculation of study power with 80 participants (8) using the methodology of Offer et al (30,31) and obtained excellent results; for example, for the Physical Self-image scale, the resulting value was 0.94. Therefore, it was determined that the study needs to include a minimum of 80 participants. The participants were incarcerated in two correctional institutions, Pahinsko-Ivanec (N = 55) and Dugave-Zagreb (N = 52), both in Croatia. The adolescents had been placed in these institutions for at least 3 months but not longer than 2 years, and their mean IQ was average for Croatian adolescents in general (21). We assessed about 70% of all delinquents placed in these institutions in two school years. Both institutions were considered as one sample, because their profile of intervention is very similar and they have similar rea (...truncated)