[The mental health status of urban adolescents with nondelinquent and delinquent behaviors]

Abstract

Mental health was examined in two representative selections of urban adolescents of 15-17 years old: with nondelinquent (n = 624) and delinquent (n = 106) behaviour. The complex of sociomedical, psychological, sociological and statistic methods was applied. High frequency of mental pathology as well as a low level of mental health were revealed in the groups examined, especially in delinquent adolescents. There were determined some differences between the groups in frequencies of separate forms of mental disorders. In nondelinquent adolescents there were most frequently observed borderline mental disorders of subclinical level as well as neuroses; there weren't observed the states of borderline intellectual insufficiency in such individuals. Pathocharacterological personal development, alcoholism, neurotic- and psychopathic-like disorders were more frequently observed in delinquent teenagers. There was determined the leading role of personal psychological behavioral factors in development of considerable mental disorders in adolescents.