THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND CHARACTER TRAIT AMONG DELINQUENT ADOLESCENTS IN KOREA

한국비행 청소년의 가정환경 및 개인내적 특성

Objective：At the present time in Korea, for a considerable proportion of children and adolescent, delinquent behavior and violence has become as a way of life in their lives and a major social problem issue as well. The contributing factors to this problem were assumed to be the negative interaction between family environment and character of adolescent. The purpose of this study is to search the relationship between these constructs and juvenile delinquency. Method：Data were collected through questionnaire survey over a period of 2 months. Subjects served for this study consisted of 1,863 adolescents including 657 delinquent adolescents and 1,206 student adolescents in Korea, sampled from Korean student population and delinquent adolescent population confined in juvenile corrective institutions, using proportional stratified random sampling method. Their age ranged between 12 and 18 years. Data were analysed by IBM PC using SAS program. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square and principal component analysis. Results：The results of this study were as follows：Inconsistency by parental child rearing patterns tended to affect delinquent behavior among delinquent adolescents. On the other hand, adolescent students were consistently reared by their parent with democratic, flexible, trusting their children and reward-oriented attitudes. In comparison of both parents in the degree of influence on their children, it was revealed that paternal child rearing pattern was more influential on their children’s behaviors than maternal’s. The psychological instability of family, disharmonious parent-child relationships tended to be contributing to delinquent behavior among delinquent adolescents. Especially, It was an interesting finding that student’s mother is the higher employed than delinquent’s mother. However working mother was more prevalent in the student’ adolescents than in student adolescents in previous studies. The delinquent adolescents have more depressive trend, more complaints of psychosomatic symptoms, the higher degree of need frustration, the more maladaptive and antisocial personality pattern than student adolescents. Conclusion：Recently, many studies on association between family factor, character of adolescent and juvenile delinquent behavior have produced relatively consistent results. This study showed that family environment and character trait of adolescent also were linked with delinquent behavior such as smoking, drinking, runaway and physical assaults etc. The results of this survey may provide impetus for future speculation and study of correlation or reciprocal interaction between family factor, character trait of adolescent and delinquent behavior during adolescence and beyond.

본 연구의 목적은 비행청소년의 가정환경, 개인내적 특성을 규명함으로써 청소년 비행행동의 원인요인을 탐색하기 위함이다. 본 연구는 조사연구로써 자료수집방법은 설문지조사법, 학생생활기록부, 소년원생활기록부 참조와 필요시 면담방법을 병행하였다. 연구대상자는 현재 중학교 1학년에서 고등학교 3학년까지 재학중인 학생 청소년 1,236명과 소년원, 분류심사원에 재소중인 비행, 범죄청소년 707명을 선정하였으며 연령범위는 12세에서 18세 사이였다. 표본추출방법은 비례층화표본추출법을 적용하여 지역(서울-지방) 및 조사기관의 유형(중학교, 고등학교, 소년원, 분류심사원)을 함께 고려하여 조사대상집단을 무작위로 선정하였다. 총표집 대상자 1,943명중 불충분한 응답자 80명을 제외한 1,863명을 연구대상으로 하여 응답률은 95.9%(비행군：92.9%, 학생군：97.6%)이었다. 자료처리는 연구자와 보조연구원들이 면담, 설문지법, 학교생활기록부나 기타 소년원재원기록에서 얻은 자료를 종합검토하여 불충분한 자료는 제거한후 SAS 프로그램을 통하여 분석하였다. 본 연구에서 사용한 통계방법은 Chi-square 검정과 주성분 분석등이었다. 본 연구에서 제시한 가설 검정 결과는 다음과 같다. 1) 비행청소년의 가정환경은 학생청소년의 가정환경보다 보다 더 역기능적이었다. 즉 비행청소년은 학생청소년에 비해 부모의 자녀 양육방식이 일관성이 적었으며 가정안정도는 낮았고 부모-자녀 관계 및 가족간의 관계도 원만하지 않았으며 가족원의 가정만족도도 낮았다. 그러나 본 조사결과에서는 비행청소년의 모친이 학생청소년의 모친보다 사회활동이 낮게 나타나 비행청소년의 모친이 학생청소년의 모친보다 사회활동이 높을 것이다는 가설은 지지받지 못하였다. 2) 비행청소년의 성격특성은 학생청소년의 성격보다 더 부적응적이었다. 즉 비행청소년은 학생청소년에 비해 욕구좌절, 반사회적 성격양상, 정신신체증상호소성향, 우울성향은 높은 반면 사회성향은 낮았다.