Contribution of individual and environmental variables in explaining adolescents' externalising behaviours

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the presence of externalising youth problems and to explore the contribution of different personal and environmental factors to their development. The study was conducted with 1101 pupils of 1st grades of secondary schools (with the average age 15.18 years) from central Croatia. The following instruments were used: Self-report questionnaire of risk and delinquent behaviours (Ajduković, Rajhvajn Bulat & Sušac, 2015), NEO--FFI (Costa & McCrae, 1992), Inventory of parent and peer attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), Parental monitoring scale (Silverberg & Small, 1991), Perceived peer pressure questionnaire and Relation to school questionnaire. Results have shown that undesirable normative behaviours are more frequent than both peer violence and misdemeanours/delinquent acts, with the most frequent being the consumption of alcohol. Extraversion and agreeableness, as variables related to adolescent personality, have the largest role in explaining the externalising problems of high school students, while the most important environmental variables are parental control, alienation from mother, peer pressure on risky and socially acceptable behaviours, and relation to school.