Annual of social work, Vol. 19 No. 2, 2012.
Review article
SOME DETERMINANTS OF PEER VIOLENCE IN ADOLESCENCE
Lucija Vejmelka
; Department of Social Work, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article first defines the notion of violence among children and young persons, presents types of violence and the characteristics of individual roles in violent behavior. Then, the period of adolescence when young people undergo many physical, biological, emotional and psychological changes is described. Also, peer influence on an adolescent is described in detail due to its great importance in that period when attitudes and thoughts defining the person in an adult age are formed. The beginning of separation from parents in the search for own identity and autonomy as well as formation of closer relationships with young people outside the family environment with which they can identify, i.e. their peers who become an important factor in adolescents' socialization and a source of support, represent important elements in this process. Peer violence in the adolescence period has certain specific characteristics, such as passage from elementary to middle school in early adolescence and from middle to high school in later phases of adolescent maturation. Violent behavior mostly does not occur in isolated conditions in presence of only a victim and a violator but in front of an auditorium of children in different roles whereby peers have a significant influence on the behavior of actors in the violence among children and young people. The article presents theories which explain in detail the role of other peers in violence among young people: dominance theory, attraction theory and homophily hypothesis. The conclusion provides certain suggestions which could be useful for future research of violence in this age group.
Keywords
adolescence; peer influence; peer violence; peer groups
Hrčak ID:
95516
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2013.
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