Addiction-risk and aggressive/criminal behaviour in adolescence: influence of family, school and peers

In this study, data from 2814 15- and 16-year-old secondary school students were analysed to investigate the collective influence of family, school and peers on behavioural problems in adolescence. Adolescents with addiction-risk and/or aggressive/criminal behaviour were compared to those who did not display such behaviour. Adolescents with behavioural problems were characterized by having a more negative perception of the environment with regard to most of the variables related with family, school and peers. Clearly behavioural problems are associated with problems in multiple environments. Some differences were found between boys and girls: multiple regression analyses showed that for boys, problems at school were the most important predictor of behavioural problem scores, while for girls, this applied to problems at home.