The present study was intended to compare difference in research variables between delinquent adolescents and student adolescents, and to analyze discriminative factors of delinquent behaviors among Korean adolescents.

The research design of this study was a questionnaire survey. Questionnaires were administered to 2,167 adolescents (1,196 students and 971 delinquents), sampled from 8 middle and high school and 6 juvenile corrective institutions, using the proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression analysis.

The discriminative factors of delinquent behaviors were smoking, alcohol use, other drug use, being sexually abused, viewing time of media violence and pornography. Among these discriminative factors, the factor most strongly associated with delinquency was smoking (odds ratio: 32.32). That is, smoking adolescent has a 32-fold higher possibility of becoming a delinquent adolescent than a non-smoking adolescent.

Our findings, that smoking was the strongest discriminative factor of delinquent behavior, suggest that educational strategies to prevent adolescent smoking may reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency. Antismoking educational efforts are therefore urgently needed in South Korea.

This study was designed to construct a structural model for explaining negative outcomes of anger in female adolescents.

Data was collected by questionnaires from 199 female adolescents ina female high school in Seoul. Data analysis was done with SAS for descriptive statistics and a PC-LISREL Program for Covariance structural analysis.

The fit of the hypothetical model to the data was moderate, thus it was modified by excluding 7 paths and adding free parameters to it. The modified model withthe paths showed a good fit to the empirical data(χ² =5.62, p=.69, GFI=.99, AGFI=.97, NFI=.99, NNFI=1.01, RMSR=.02, RMSEA=.00). Trait anger, state anger, and psychosocial problems were found to have a significant direct effect on psychosomatic symptoms. State anger, psychosocial problems, and learning behaviorswere found to have direct effects on depression of female adolescents.

The derived modelis considered appropriate for explaining and predicting negative outcomes of anger in female adolescents. Therefore, it can effectively be used as a reference model for further studies and is a suggested direction in nursing practice.