LEMOS, Ida Timóteo. Risco psicossocial e psicopatologia em adolescentes com percurso delinquente. []. , 28, 1, pp.117-132. ISSN 0870-8231.

Several investigations on juvenile delinquency sustain a socio-ecological conceptualization of juvenile delinquency, which suggests that this trend is determined by a reciprocal and dynamic inter-relation of the individuals’ characteristics and their key social systems (Agnew, 2003). In this paper, we present the results of a study aimed at identifying retrospectively, in a group of juvenile delinquents, a set of psychosocial risk factors, patterns of anti-social behavior and previous events of risk or psychosocial adversity during infancy. The research has also focused on understanding the relationship between these factors and self-reported psychopathological symptoms. The study comprised a sample of 63 adolescents in the Portuguese Justice System for minors in judicial custody, and data were collected in the south of the country. To collect the required information we used the General Symptom Index (GSI) of the Brief Symptom Inventory, as well as a questionnaire designed for this study, based on literature review on psychosocial risk factors for antisocial behavior in adolescence, particularly, the typology of psychosocial risk established by Born, Chevalier, and Humblet (1997) and Moffit’s developmental taxonomy on adolescents’ anti-social behaviour (1993). The results suggest that adolescents whose parents have a clearly conflictual relationship tend to have an index of psychopathological symptoms significantly higher than those whose parents did not present apparent conflicts. However, the report of psychopathology is not significantly higher in people with indicators of negative events in childhood (separation from a parent, absence of a father figure, institutionalization, child abuse, conflict between parents).

: Anti-social behaviour; Juvenile delinquency; Portuguese juvenile justice system; Psychosocial risk factors; Psychopathology.

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