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Introduction: Adolescence is a time in which the values having been formed in childhood will have the opportunity to grow and mature. Besides, it is a period when an adolescent who is more susceptible to danger, may make hasty decisions that would probably lead to unfavorable behaviors including delinquency. Thus, the adolescents need to learn and master certain social skills. Social responsibility is a skill that makes the individual obliged and committed regarding the consequences of his/her decision on himself/herself and others. The present study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of social responsibility training on attitude towards juvenile delinquency in adolescents
Method: This is a semi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population of the study included all the female secondary high school students within the age range of 15 to 18 years old in Tehran. A sample of 92 students (45 intervention group and 47 control students) was selected from two districts of Tehran. In order to educate social responsibility, a learning protocol was designed which was different but interconnected, and included the followings: social consciousness, responsibility and its types, choices and consequences, respecting the feelings of others- respect for social diversity, rights and responsibilities, solving the problem peacefully and designing models for social responsibility (Table 1). To assess the subjects’ attitude towards the delinquency, Delinquent Behaviors Questionnaire was used. The subjects received social responsibility training for seven sessions of 90 minutes lasting for two months. Then, the post-test was given. To analyze the data, SPSS24 Software and Paired and Independent T-Test, One Way ANOVA and Multivariate Analysis of Variance were used.
Findings: The mean age of participants in the study was 16.39 (S.D=0/67) years old. Based on Fisher’s exact tests and Chi-square tests, participants in the intervention and control group did not differ significantly in terms of demographic characteristics such as age, the parents ‘education, the prisoner in the family and the parents’ smoking. Result of Paired and Independent T-Test suggested that in the intervention group, the positive attitude towards delinquency significantly decreased and negative attitudes toward delinquency increased significantly; however, in the control group, significant difference was not observed for any of the dimensions of attitude towards delinquency (Table 2). The findings of Multivariate Analysis Of Variance showed that the pre-test score of positive attitude towards delinquency explains 6% and 22% of the variations of post-test scores of negative and positive attitudes, respectively. In addition, the pre-test score of negative attitude towards delinquency explains about 32% of the post-test variations of negative attitudes (Table 3).
Table (1) A protocol for social responsibility training
Subject of Session Main Idea Goals Activities
Social consciousness The growth of consciousness of social problems can remind what the individuals and organizations in the society are responsible for. Students’ perception of social life: Can we live alone?
Understanding our relationship with the community
Understanding the issues and challenges of today’s society
Understanding our role in increasing or reducing social problems Brainstorming- group discussion
Responsibility and its types What does personal and social responsibility mean?
A Review of the previous session
A review of students’ perception of responsibility
Understanding various individual and social responsibilities
Familiarization with the responsibility training program
Understanding the importance of learning responsibility in adolescents Brainstorming- group discussion- Watching a short movie about social responsibility
Choices and consequences Making a choice means accepting its consequences.
Understanding the importance of predicting the consequences of a choice
Understanding the short-term and long-term consequences
Understanding the impact of our choices on our lives and the lives of others Group discussion - Watching a short video clip
Respect for social variations - Respect for the feelings of others Understanding differences of individuals helps making better choices and respecting the feelings of others Understanding a variety of social differences
The importance of respecting differences and diversity in society
The importance of considering the differences and social diversity in our judgments. Brainstorming- group discussion-
Understanding rights and responsibilities For every right, there is a responsibility.
Understanding the concept of rights
Understanding your rights and the rights of others in society
Understanding various social responsibilities (religious, political, environmental, social, economic, cultural)
Understanding the relationship between rights and responsibilities Brainstorming- group discussion-Role play- In-class activities
Solving problems peacefully Solving a problem peacefully benefits individuals as well as society.
A review of the third session: choices and consequences
Students’ understanding of multiple ways to solve a problem
Students’ understanding of peaceful solutions
Understanding the need to choose a peaceful solution Brainstorming- group discussion-Role play - In-class activities
Designing role models for social responsibility (as a parent, a school principal, policeman or a mayor) Every society (small or large) has its own rules and values that affect the choices and decisions made by its members. Students’ understanding of the role of leadership and management
Students’ understanding of the necessity of laws and norms and respecting them
Students’ understanding of adults’ roles Competition in the form of class work - Student group activities - Brainstorming
Table (2) Mean scores of negative and positive attitude of pre-test and post-test in two groups of intervention and control
Attitude Dimensions Group Pre- test Post-test Paired samples T Test
mean Standard deviation Mean Standard deviation P
Negative attitude Control 45.07 7.94 44.42 6.49 0.49
Intervention 47.14 5.52 49.86 6.48 <0.0001
Independent samples T-Test p 0.153 <0.0001
Positive attitude Control 26.03 5.35 27.29 6.49 0.169
Intervention 24.72 5.12 22.83 4.84 0.003
Independent samples T- Test p 0.227 <0.0001
Table (3) The results of multivariate analysis of variance on post-test scores of negative and positive attitude
Source Dependent Variable Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Partial Eta Squared
District negative2 1.606 1 1.606 0.078 0.781 0.001
positive2 12.772 1 12.772 0.638 0.427 0.008
Group negative2 237.303 1 237.303 11.510 0.001 0.126
positive2 220.912 1 220.912 11.033 0.001 0.121
Age negative2 19.777 2 9.889 0.480 0.621 0.012
positive2 71.341 2 35.671 1.781 0.175 0.043
Education of mother negative2 17.278 2 8.639 0.419 0.659 0.010
positive2 33.574 2 16.787 0.838 0.436 0.021
District *age negative2 52.793 2 26.395 1.280 0.284 0.031
positive2 102.884 2 51.440 2.569 0.083 0.065
District * Education of mother negative2 61.551 1 61.551 2.295 0.088 0.036
positive2 28.832 1 28.832 1.444 0.243 0.018
Negative1 negative2 763.892 1 763.892 37.050 0.000 0.317
positive2 46.870 1 46.870 2.341 0.130 0.028
Positive1 negative2 110.547 1 110.547 5.362 0.023 0.063
positive2 456.401 1 456.401 22.793 0.000 0.222
Discussion: The findings of the study showed that social responsibility training could be effective in promoting attitude and social competencies and decreasing adolescents’ tendency to resort to deviant patterns, such as delinquency. In addition, the results of Multivariate Analysis of Variance showed that this training is more effective in younger adolescents.
Ethical Considerations
Authors’ contributions
all authors contributed in producing of the research.
Funding
In the present study, all expenses were borne by the author and he did not have any sponsors.
Conflicts of interest
the authors declared no conflict of interest.
Principles of Research Ethics
In this article, all rights related to research ethics, including obtain informed and written consent from students, their parents or legal guardians to participate in the study, assure students of their confidentiality and provide them with psychological and comfort security. assure students that social responsibility training was free and harmless for them and It can enhance their knowledge. The intervention also has a code of ethics under IR.USWR.REC.1396.192 from the Ethics Committee of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences and registration code IRCT20180902040929N1 from the Iranian Clinical Trial Registration Center.
Acknowledgments
We sincerely thank all those who participated in this study, especially the officials and students of Kowsar and Shahid Aval female Secondary high schools in District 16, as well as the Farhang and Velayat schools in District 5.
Type of Study:
orginal |
Received: 2018/10/7 | Accepted: 2019/09/29 | Published: 2020/01/18
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