Structural Analysis of the Role of Depressive Disorder in Predicting the Tendency of Adolescents to Delinquency; Case Study Male Students of Tehran High Schools

Depression has accompanied people even in the short term in a period of life, and this feeling of depression arises due to unfortunate events or negative feelings, which usually return to normal after a few days. Also, a depressed mood is one of the natural human reactions to life events. Based on this, this research has been conducted with the aim of structural analysis of the role of depression in predicting the tendency of teenagers to commit delinquency among male high school students in Tehran.

Method:

 The method of conducting this research is quantitative and descriptive analysis. In this study, the researchers used the existing theoretical literature while formulating the research hypotheses, indexed the main components of the research and designed the research questionnaire with the help of the theoretical literature. The statistical population of the research includes male students of the first secondary school in Tehran, using Morgan's table, 384 of them were selected in different areas of Tehran by cluster sampling method in several clusters and questionnaire questions were asked from them. The findings were also analyzed with the help of Amos software.

Findings: 

The findings of the research showed that the variable of depression disorder has a positive and significant effect on the variable of self-harm and suicide in its strongest effect with a coefficient of (0.68) and after that the effect of depression on the tendency to use drugs with a coefficient of (0.64) It is in second place. In general, depression has had a positive and significant effect on the variables of nihilism, academic failure, isolation and withdrawal, revenge, and has not had an effect on the variables of sexual deviations and violence and aggression due to the negative and weak coefficients.

The findings of this research, both in the theoretical dimension and existing literature, and in the experimental dimension and field analysis of data, have shown that depression is one of the strongest predictors of delinquency among teenagers, and to control social harms, it should be diagnosed and controlled. It is the most important educational strategy among teenagers.