Family Environment and the Development of Deviant Behaviors Among Adolescents. Explorative Study in High Schools from Bihor

Smoking, drinking and using drugs by adolescents represent serious issues that need our attention. Studies about these matters facing youngsters should figure prominently in public discourse and also in academia. These problems should be studied in terms of the factors that favor their spread, and also the effects posed by such behaviors. Social learning theory, alongside with social control theory indicate the roots of deviance within the proximate environment of the individual. Our research fits into the explorative sociological researches and aims to investigate these types of behaviors among students from 11th and 12th grade in Bihor County. In this sense, the theme was quantitatively approached by using a questionnaire based method. The present study focused on the description of family background and the impact of difficult family situations on student’s cigarette, alcohol and drug use. Our main results suggest that there is a strong relationship between the three types of deviant behaviors – smoking, drinking and using drugs. Also, students from families in which such behaviors are widespread were at risk of developing such deviant acts themselves. More than that, the risk of developing deviant behaviors, especially drug use and smoking cigarettes, is associated with less favorable relationships between adolescents and parents. These results suggest that prevention measures should focus more on families with risk of developing deviant behaviors. In this sense, the social worker has a prominent role in limiting the spreading of the phenomenon within society.



Keywords: students, family environment, deviant behaviors, drug use