Two researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) have studied the relationship between teenagers' goals and antisocial behaviour. The results show that the principal goal of young people is to finish their studies and leave home. The most antisocial among them place greater importance on popularity with others.
"The goals that teenagers place most importance on are to do with leaving home, work and education, in other words they are related to finishing their studies and academic achievements", Laura L-pez Romero, co-author of the study with Estrella Romero and a researcher at the USC, tells SINC.
"Antisocial goals are to deceive, steal or bypass rules and laws, but not as a means to an end, rather as an end in themselves. In other words, taking part in this kind of behaviour is a goal in itself for adolescents, because it allows them to achieve social recognition and to establish an identity and antisocial reputation, which gives them a certain level of popularity with others", says L-pez Romero.
The objective of the study, which has been published recently in the Spanish Journal of Psychology, was to study how teenagers' goals were structured, and the relationship between these and antisocial behaviour. It was based on questionnaires handed out to a sample of 488 participants, aged between 12 and 18, at six public schools in Galicia.
The students had to state the importance they placed on each goal, using a scale of six options. "Then we analyzed the young people's involvement in antisocial behaviour", the expert points out. The study is based on these data. The researchers also studied the role of gender in the relationship between goals and antisocial behaviour.
The conditioning of gender roles
Out of the teenagers interviewed, 233 were boys (47.8 %) and 254 were girls (52.2%). "We observed very classic differences between the two groups. The girls placed more importance on goals related to education and interpersonal-family aspects, while the boys set targets that were more antisocial or related to sporting achievements", explains L-pez Romero.
The only factor without any difference between the two was their goal of leaving home. "Both groups were the same in terms of their aspirations about gaining autonomy and freedom", says the expert.
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