Manifestations of Deviation in the Adolescent Subculture

In this article we will only look at questions relating to school students’ attitudes toward types of deviation such as smoking and the use of alcohol and narcotics. The empirical material is divided into the following topics: how widespread these forms of behavior are; motives that cause adolescents to start smoking, using alcohol, and taking narcotics; and the reactions of people who are most closely associated with them (parents, classmates, and teachers) to such manifestations. As we analyze the material, it is important not only to determine the role that deviation plays in getting through the crisis of adolescence but also to show specific gender differences in the adolescent subculture’s deviant forms of behavior. The article is based on the materials of a questionnaire survey of 2,983 students in the seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades of general education schools in Moscow. The survey was carried out in 2002, and was generally designed for the study of the characteristics of the different types of deviant behavior (smoking, using alcohol and narcotics, fighting, becoming sexually active, and so on) and orientations toward maintaining a healthy way of life. The research program within which the project was carried out is a