Family, social attitudes and anti-social behaviour of children and teenagers

This article examines problems of the interrelation of social attitudes and anti-social behavior of children and teenagers. The author analyzes the problem of the interrelation of attitudes and social behavior in connection with factors such as strength/weakness, clearness/ambivalence of an attitude, and also the influence of the factor of a situation. Results of empirical studies of value orientations, moral-psychological attitudes of youth in samples of senior pupils and students are considered. A family is considered as a factor which forms both social attitudes and anti-social behavior. The author analyses modern approaches and results of empirical studies of the conditions under which social attitudes of personality directly influence anti-social behavior and also when they do not influence. Problems of the influence of the structural and psychological deformation of a family on the anti-social behavior of children and teenagers are discussed. The author emphasizes that when determining anti-social behavior of minors the priority belongs to the psychosocial deformation of a family. The author demonstrates styles of parenting and conditions which directly influence the formation of aggressive behavior. It is noted that insufficient attention to a child is a more important factor of delinquency, than the unfavorable socio-economic status. The author analyzes results of empirical studies from which it follows that not only negative social learning, but also frustration arising from the lack of parental love are important condition of the development of deviant behavior. It is shown that mother is in the center of the system of relations of children and teenagers. It is established that decrease in a positive attitude towards mother, increase in negative descriptors when describing mother correlates with the general growth of negativization of all the social relations of the person. The author emphasizes that the parent-child relationship which is characterized by inconsistency, as well as a high conflictness, contribute most significantly to the child's learning of aggression as a way of interpersonal conflicts resolution.