Forming Self- Control into Adolescents: Parental Impulsivity, Family Deviance and Adolescents’ Perception their Parents’ Self-Control

Abstract

Self-control is an important construct in the development of the individual, which is reflected in the behavior of the adolescent, and later in their professional and social development. The General Theory of Crime of Gottfredson and Hirschi, showed that forming self-control in adolescents is the reflection of factors from the familial environment, which includes parental impulsivity, familial deviance and perceived parental self-control. The empirical researches show that the parental impulsivity and familial deviance negatively influence the forming of self-control in adolescents. Impulsivity reflects a tendency of rapid reaction, which leads to an interiorizing behavior. Moreover, recent research has shown that the level of self-control in adolescents is associated with being engaged in deviant behaviors, while adolescents that had a positive attitude towards delinquent behaviors, will have a lower level of self-control and a higher level of manifesting delinquent behavior. The purpose of this study is to present a brief summary of the literature concerning the relationship between parental behavior and the formation of self-control in adolescents, taking into consideration the parental impulsivity, familial deviance and the perceived self-control of the parental skills.