Teenagers’ vandalism and the importance of parent-child relationships in addressing it

Abstract

Vandalism in the urban environment is a common phenomenon but is difficult to evaluate. The scale of damage caused by vandalism is rarely analyzed, and therefore a limited number of scientific works are devoted to the phenomenon of vandal behavior and the identification of its causes. While the role of the family in the formation of deviant behavior is indicated by many researchers, the context of vandalism and the issue of family determination remains open. This article studies the parents’ styles of upbringing and their preparation for teenagers’ vandal behavior. By identifying the degree of influence of the family in the formation of such a destructive form of interaction between teenagers’ and the material environment it is possible to identify a group of teenagers who are ready to commit acts of vandalism. An attempt is made to correlate child-parent relations with teenagers’ motivational readiness to commit acts of vandalism. To study the relationship of child-parent relations and teenagers’ vandal behavior, data was collected (using psycho-diagnostic techniques) from 60 teenagers and their parents from complete and incomplete families, the socially well-off and the socially disadvantaged. The results were processed using descriptive statistics, MANOVA and linear regression analysis. It was found that parental upbringing styles play a decisive role in initiating vandalism, while the educational effects of mother and father have their own specific characteristics. The results can be used in the organization of social support for children from socially disadvantaged families in order to prevent vandalism and its radicalization. © 2018, Kazan Federal University. All rights reserved.