DETERMINANTS OF EARLY ADOLESCENTS’ EXPOSURE TO COMMUNITY VIOLENCE AS DIRECT VICTIMS / DETERMINANTE IZLOŽENOSTI MLAĐIH ADOLESCENATA NASILJU U ZAJEDNICI U VIDU DIREKTNE ŽRTVE NASILJA

Abstract

Studying determinants of exposure to the community violence is vital for creating prevention programmes and reducing violence among early adolescents. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between determinants (gender, aggressiveness, depressive reactions, self-esteem, parental control, perceived social support from family, peers and teachers) on the one hand, and young adolescents’exposure to violence in the
community in the sense of being a direct victim of violence at school and in the neighbourhood on the other. The research sample consisted of 300 early adolescents (160 girls, 138 boys and two participants who did not specify their gender) with average age 12.97 (SD=1.17). Applied instruments: Scale of aggression; Birleson’s depression scale; Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale; Parental control scale; Scale of perceived social support; Victimization Scale (Scale of exposure to violence in school as a victim and the Scale of exposure to violence in the neighbourhood as a victim). According to the results of the logistic regression analysis, it was established that the regression model explains 19.6% of the variance criteria of community violence exposure as a direct victim of violence at school and the omnibus test model is statistically significant. Predictors with a statistically significant contribution to the explanation of the criterion are: depressive reactions, aggressiveness, parental control, support from peers. Furthermore, according to the results of the logistic regression analysis, the model explains 11.8% of the variance criteria of community violence exposure as a direct victim of neighbourhood violence, and the omnibus test model is statistically significant. In the prediction of the criterion measure,
depressive reactions, gender, aggressiveness and parental control all participate.