NCJ Number
200196
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 32 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2003 Pages: 291-299
Date Published
August 2003
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the social control used by the families of juveniles who worked as apprentices in several industrialized areas in Turkey, in order to determine the relationship between patterns of family social control and certain deviant behaviors by the juveniles, such as alcohol and drug use.
Abstract
During the last few years in Turkey, the youth population between the ages of 13 and 18 has started to work as apprentices, largely due to rapid industrialization and urbanization. The fact that these youth typically come from families that have migrated from rural to urban areas and that they have started to work at an early age to provide economic assistance for their families distinguishes them as a subgroup. In the first part of this study a literature review related to the conceptual framework of the study was conducted. In the second part of the study, a questionnaire was prepared and used in semistructured interviews with the sample of youth. A sample of 400 young apprentices and skilled workers was selected from several industrial areas of Ankara. Data were collected in January, February, and March 1996. Survey questions were asked to define the frequency of using alcohol and the means of regulating the deviant behavior of youth by their families. The independent variable was the social control mechanisms used by the families of the youth that affected their use of alcohol and drugs. The means of social control were classified as battering, swearing and insulting, complaining to masters or bosses, forbidding them to meet their friends, not giving them money, and depriving them of certain things. The findings show that most of the youth who used drugs and alcohol had been battered frequently and were regularly exposed to parental verbal abuse such as swearing. Turning to alcohol and drug abuse may be the means by which these youth cope with the stress experienced in their families as well as on the job. 7 tables and 45 references