Proceedings of the 18th International Academic Conference, London

FAMILY SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUSS AND DELINQUENCY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN PRISHTINA

MIRANDA GASHI

Abstract:

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences among juveniles who demonstrate delinquent behaviours, across their parents’ education background, the level of family income and their parents’ employment status. A total of 372 juveniles of age 14-17 years participated voluntarily in the research. The Mean Age of the participants was MA=15.5 years (SD=1.12). 333 (89.5 %) of them live in Pristina and 39 (10.5%) of them live in a village. The study participants showed differences of statistical significance in the level of father’s employment (χ2(1, N=372)=22.753, p=.000); mothers employment (χ2(1, N=372)=46.839, p=.000); in father’s education background (χ2(3, N=372)=233.699, p=.000); in mother’s education background (χ2(3, N=372)=341.570, p=.000) and in the level of the monthly family income (χ2(3, N=372)=26.022, p=.000). The Delinquency Scale of Wave II questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. The Croanbach alpha coefficient (α) which was used to measure the internal consistency of the questionnaire, showed the value of.612. The T-test for independent groups and one-way ANOVA were used to verify potential differences across indicator variables. The findings showed that juveniles whose mother was unemployed demonstrated higher levels of delinquent behaviours in comparison to juveniles whose mother was employed. Father’s employment status and the education background of both parents showed no differences of statistical significance. The level of family income showed that children from families with an income level under 200 Euro/month reported higher levels of delinquent behaviours in comparison to children from families with monthly income of up to 350 Euro/month and families with income level over 500 Euro/month. The results reinforce the complex nature of the factors affecting the emergence of delinquent behaviours among juveniles, which should certainly be examined from their cultural perspective, as well.

Keywords: socio-economic status, juvenile, delinquent behaviour, differences

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.018.040

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