Factors affecting the incidence of vandalism among high school students in Tehran, district 5 Hezekiah

Abstract

 The aim of study was to investigate the factors influencing vandalism in the among high school students in district 5 of Tehran. Therefore, the theories of sociology, psychology and social psychology were used as the theoretical framework. The population included all high school students in the fifth district of Tehran, the statistical population was about 36,000, of whom those using a sample of 380 individuals, through sampling stratified randomized was taken using Cochran’s formula. To collect the data, standard questionnaire of moral intelligence of Lnyk and Kie (2005), researcher-developed questionnaire of vandalism and social adjustment questionnaire were used. Using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, the Cronbach's alpha coefficient for standard questionnaire of moral intelligence of Lnyk and Kie (2005), researcher-developed questionnaire of vandalism and social adjustment questionnaire were 0.88, 0.761.0 and 0.84 respectively. To determine the relationship between variables, descriptive statistics Pearson and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used. The results showed that variables socioeconomic and student status had a significant inverse relationship with Vandalistic behavior and variables of association with bad friends, school discipline, parental discord and alienation had a direct relationship with vandalism. In multivariate regression analysis, in trend forecasting equation, vandalistic behavior, alienation and punishment in school variables could predict 42 percent of the variance in the dependent variable in the equation and predict the vandalistic behavior (four variables of punishment, alienation, and student status socio-economic status accounted for prediction of 38 percent of changes.