Adolescence is the period of rapid and unstable growth progress. Due to its characteristic of being affected by various environmental factors, deviant behaviors are determined by various factors resulting from a variety of environmental systems rather...
Adolescence is the period of rapid and unstable growth progress. Due to its characteristic of being affected by various environmental factors, deviant behaviors are determined by various factors resulting from a variety of environmental systems rather than by only one factor, indicating the understanding of complex influences is needed. In addition, since the degree of factors influencing young individuals varies depending on the passing of time, the level of deviant experiences differs between adolescents, and types of various characteristics may be present. Therefore, it is important to identify the characteristics and relating factors of delinquency among adolescents based on the passing of time.
This study is a longitudinal descriptive research designed to identify demographic characteristics, family factors, school factors and psychological factors affecting characteristics of latent deviation class of adolescents by group using 1st to 5th data of a total of 3449 second-year middle school students nationwide (excluding Jeju Island) from the Korea Youth Panel Survey (hereafter referred to as KYPS) conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute based on repeated measurements for five years from 2003 to 2007. Among survey items of the KYPS, the presence of deviant experiences of adolescents (14 items), parent supervision (4 items), tie-to-parents (6 items) tie- to-teachers (3 items), tie-to-friends (4 items), self-esteem (6 items), self-confidence (3 items), aggression (5 items) and stress (17 items) were used as research tools.
The research results are as follows: First, as a result of latent class growth analysis aimed to explore latent deviation class of adolescents, a total of four groups such as ‘low deviation group’, ‘con- tinued deviation group’, ‘decreased deviation group’ and ‘increased deviation group’were derived, and 'low deviation group' was found to constitute 31.6% of the total number of adolescents, ‘continued deviation group’ 17.0%, ‘decreased deviation group’ 14.1%, and ‘increased deviation group’ 37.4% respectively. Second, a multi-nominal logistic regression analysis was conducted using demographic characteristics, family factors, school factors and psychological factors by latent deviation class of adolescents as independent variables. As its result, it was found that factors affecting deviation of adolescents include gender (female students), form of family structure (remarried both (single) parents, no parents), the question of whether or not to live with parents or guardians (living with single parent, not living together), educational background of parents (high school graduates, college graduates, graduates from postgraduate school or higher) and average monthly income of households. However, there were no consistent effects at every point of time in the entire latent deviation class with respect to these characteristics. The parent supervision of family factors, tie-to-teachers and tie-to-friends of school factors, and aggression and stress of psychological factors turned out to be influencing factors. These results revealed that there were differences in related factors affecting deviation of the entire adolescent group and those affecting deviation for each latent deviation class by point of time and group, which indicates that the results that can seem to affect deviation of adolescents in case of analysis directed at the entire adolescent group appeared to be affected differently in the analysis by the actual latent deviation group.
Based on the results of this study, the suggestions below are proposed.
1) In most of domestic studies that investigate latent class on the deviation and developmental trajectory, measuring time and methods to measure the deviation frequencies of nominal variables turned out to be different depending on researchers, posing difficulties in a comparison on the latent deviation class. Thus, repeated studies for exploring consistent and definite type of latent class are suggested.
2) There is a need to seek ways for nurses to help adolescents solve their problems for themselves as health providers as well as consultants. In a related move, enhancing nurses' practical roles required to discuss health problems of adolescents that can be raised due to their deviation, and to devise policies and measures for supporting the healthy development of adolescents is suggested.