Gender Differences in Character Strengths, Social Connections, and Beliefs about Crime among Adolescents

• Main Authors: Gira Bhatt, Roger Tweed, Steve Dooley, Jodi Viljoen, Kevin Douglas, Nathalie Gagnon, Kashmir Besla
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Social Sciences Research Society 2012-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies
• Online Access: http://www.sobiad.org/ejournals/journal_IJSS/arhieves/2012_1/gira_bhatt.pdf

Most gang-involved youth inCanada are predominantly males (94%) andbetween the age of 16 and 18 (Youth Gangs inCanada, 2007). However, young adolescent girls are now increasingly seen among youth gangs (Girls, Gangs, andSexual Exploitation inBritish Columbia, 2010). Within the strength-basedframework for research targeting social problems such as youth violence andcriminal gang activities (Tweed, Bhatt, Dooley, Spindlier, Douglas, Viljoen,2011), a study was conducted in local high schools inBritish Columbia;Canada,in which 194 boys and 226 girls aged 12 to 14 participated.The results of thepreliminary analyses of the data indicated several gender differences among theparticipants’ character strengths, social connections, and cognitive beliefspertaining to violence. Boys in comparison to girls, reported a higher level ofself-esteem, and a stronger belief in violence as a way to deal with conflicts.Girls reported higher satisfaction in the area of friendship than boys.Additionally, girls reported higher levels of parental monitoring of where theywere, who they werewith and what they were doing. These preliminary findingssuggest that prevention strategies would serve the youth well when they arederived from a targeted gendered strategies with a focus on a strength-basedapproach for a positive adolescent development.