Received: March 25, 2010; Revised: April 5, 2010 Accepted: June 4, 2010.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of family structure(parentral marital status and socioeconomic status), parental communication, academic problems, and peer relationship on juvenile delinquency. The participants were 1009 middle school and high school students in Seoul city and Gyeonggi Province. The major results were as follows: 1) Parental marital status(divorced/seperated) had both direct and indirect positive effects and lower class in socioeconomic status had an indirect positive effect on academic problems and peer relationship on juvenile delinquency rates. 2) Open maternal communication had a direct negative effect on juvenile delinquency rates. However, open paternal communication had both direct and indirect negative effects. 3) Academic problems had both direct and indirect positive effects on juvenile delinquency rates. 4) Peer relationship had a direct positive effect on juvenile delinquency rates. 5) The level of effects that each variable had differed by delinquency types. Based on these results, implications for preventing juvenile delinquency were discussed.