1. Who are the most ‘violent’ young adolescents? Claire Gavray – Univ. Liège (Belgium) Nicole Vettenburg – Univ. Gent (Belgium) Ljubljana – 9-12 september 2009 Claire.gavray@ulg.ac.be / nicole.vettenburg@ugent.be

2. Introduction Important issue Violence: – attitude towards violence (valorisation of violence) –Gender ISRD2 – Belgium

3. Tabel 1. Life-time and last year prevalence Life time % Last year % Freq. violent offences a 27.518.0 Rare violent offences b 6.64.1 n = 2247, weighted data; prevalence based on valid cases a group fight and carrying an object which can serve for protection or attack b pick pocketing/snatching, robbery/extortion, and assault

4. Delinquent behavior and attitude Block 1: demographic Male 2.42*** Age 1.08 Migrant (ref=native) 2 nd generation 1.29 1 st generation 0.98 Block 2: family Intact family 0.91 Good relationship with mother 0.99 Good relationship with father 0.97 Tabel 2. Odds ratios of logistic regression for violent delinquent behaviours on demographic, family- and school-related and lifestyle variables as well as individual descriptors

5. Block 3: school Positive attitudes towards school 1.01 Negative attitudes towards school 1.28* Skip school 1.16 Grade (reference: 7 th grade) 8 th grade 0.69 9 th grade 0.60 Block 4: lifestyle Alcohol 2.39*** Drugs 2.28*** Delinquent friends 2.23*** Goes out 1.75** Time spent with (reference: alone) Family 0.99 Friends 1.42 Discriminated 1.20 Victim 1.48* Block 5:individual Low self-control 1.49* Positive attitude to violence 2.27***

6. Agregated offencesAverage score of attit. To violence Sign. A. Freq. Violent offences*** - ja (n= 395)2,60 - nee (n= 1799)1,94 B. Rare violent offences*** - ja (n= 91)2,91 - nee (n= 2104)2,02 C. Rare property offfences*** - ja (n= 89)2,80 - nee (n= 2110)2,03 D. Harddrug use*** - ja (n= 25)2,79 - nee (n= 2167)2,05 E. Alcohol use*** - ja (n=793)2,19 - nee (n= 1411)1,99 Tabel 3. Relationship between offences & attitude to violence

7. In the descriptive analyses: –Mutual relationship (behaviour – attitude) –Gender differences concerning: Violence Personal & social profile

8. Construction of a score of attitude towards violence (valorisation) Five items: 1.A bit of violence is part of the fun 2.One needs to make use of force to be respected 3.If somebody attacks me, I will hit him/her back 4.Without violence everything would be much more boring 5.It is completely normal that men want to prove themselves in physical fights with others => Possibility to answers: fully disagree – somewhat disagree – somewhat agree – fully agree

9. Fully disagree % GirlsBoys A bit of violence is part of the fun5732 One needs to make use of force to be respected7044 If somebody attacks me, I will hit him/her back1610 Without violence everything would be much more boring 6645 It is completely normal that men want to prove themselves in physical fights with others 4133 Tabel 4. Attitude to violence – girls & boys

10. Creation of a new variable ‘highest attitude’: in each gendergroup => 25% highest valorisation versus 75% Girls: 25% of 1096=280 Boys: 25% of 1151= 323 Analyses: –First step: total group (boys + girls) –Second step: same analyses in each gender group

11. Results: A. Total group Significant correlation between attitude to violence and: –Problems of physical wealth and number of accidents –High self-evaluated level of crime at school (a lot of stealing, fighting, vandalism drugs…) –School problems (repeating, truancy) –Surinvestment in their group of friends, specially delinquent ones –Negatives relations with the parents, especially with mother –Low level of selfcontrol –Use of alcohol and drugs (own and parent’s ones) –Delinquency rates and especially violent behaviour

12. Results: B. Gender groups Similarities: –use of alcohol and drugs –physical wealth and number of accidents –delinquency rates and especially violent behaviour –level of selfcontrol –surinvestment in group of friends, specially in delinquent one –desinvestment in school and schooling –self-evaluated level of crime at school –quality of relationships with parents

13. Differences: Already differences concerning those factors between boys and girls valorising most violence Relationships with peers Member of a ‘gang’ 54% boys 39% girls Mixed group 76% girls 47% boys

14. Relationships with school girls boys repeated a gradeX X truancyX X realistic self-eval.achievement X like school X good relationships / teachers X > boys : broader instrumental conception of school… and neighbourhood

15. Very significant differences directly visible in explicative analyses Concerning Family, social and cultural characteristics Negative life-events and early victimisation

16. (Only) all those discriminant gender variables in a explicative model of attitude towards violence ² girls boys Pr> F Pr > F Depression 0.25 0.92 Recently hit 0.04 0.78 Birthplace 0.24 0.19 Family omposition 0.02 0.33 Father’s diplôme 0.40 0.90 Mother at work 0.13 0.15 Other spoken language 0.02 0.11 Relations with mother0.16 0.16 Relations with facther0.44 0.86 Lost a brother or…0.03 0.81 Leisure otherwise than family0.53 0.03 Signification of the model Pr > F 0.02 0.10 R2 0.13 0.6

17. Delinquent behaviour attitude towards violence -----------------> < ---------------- CONCLUSIONS

18. Girls + Boys 25% highest ‘violent’ Same predictors YES but…=/=. Et =/= Girls family, social, cultural marks early l.e, victimisations > isolated reaction ? Boys > collective identity ?