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Stealing Among Students: Causes And Remedies
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Have you ever tried to cut back on stealing things?
Has a family member ever expressed concern about the amount of time you spend stealing things?
Have you ever missed school, work, or other important social activities because you were stealing?
Do you think you have a problem with excessive stealing?
Have you ever experienced an irresistible urge or uncontrollable need to steal things?
Have you ever experienced a growing tension or anxiety that can only be relieved by stealing?
Three
of the questions are based on the Minnesota Impulse Disorders
Interview, a valid and reliable screen for adolescent kleptomania,9 and
reflect Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth
Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for kleptomania. Trying to
cut back on stealing and an irresistible urge to steal reflect Criterion
A; growing tension or anxiety that is relieved only by stealing mirrors
both Criteria B and C.5 Therefore, students who endorsed all three of
these questions were placed in the kleptomania group, while other
respondents who reported stealing but did not endorse all three symptoms
were placed in the nonkleptomania stealing group.
Demographics
included gender, race, Hispanic ethnicity, grade, and family structure
(live with one or two parents or some other configuration). Health and
functioning variables included grade average (A or B, C, and D or F);
extracurricular activities (including employment); tobacco use (never,
once or twice, occasionally but not regularly, regularly in the past, or
regularly now); lifetime marijuana use (any use in the past 30 days);
alcohol frequency (none, light (1–5 days), moderate (6–19 days), or
heavy (20 days or more)); lifetime use of other drugs (any or none);
current caffeine use (none, 1–2 drinks per day, 3 or more drinks per
day); a two-week period of feeling sad or hopeless and losing interest
in usual activities (assessing for depression symptomatology) in the
past 12 months; a history in the past 12 months of getting into a fight
requiring medical attention; and a report within the past 12 months of
carrying a weapon of any kind to school.
Data Analysis
Data were
double-entered from the paper surveys into an electronic database.
Random spot checks of completed surveys and data-cleaning procedures
were performed, to ensure that the data were accurate and not out of
range.
Distribution characteristics of all variables were examined.
Only participants with complete data on the dependent variable were
included in the analyses. Baseline demographic data were evaluated for
differences between those with complete data and those without complete
data, using t tests for parametric data and Mann-Whitney U tests for
nonparametric data. Participants were divided into three groups: no
stealing, nonkleptomania stealing, and kleptomania. Differences between
the three groups were examined using Pearson’s chi-square. All
comparison tests were two-tailed.
Multivariate analyses were
conducted by using multinomial logistic regression models with the
three-group stealing variable as the dependent variable. The three
groups were compared using odds ratios from these models, adjusting for
demographic characteristics found to distinguish the three groups in
bivariate analyses. Because all pairwise comparisons of three groups
were performed, p values were corrected to .02 to allow for multiple
comparisons.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]Although stealing among adolescents appears to be fairly common, an assessment of adolescent stealing and its relationship to other behaviors and health problems is incompletely understood. A large sample of high school students (n = 3,999) was examined by self-report survey with 153 questions concerning demographic characteristics, stealing behaviors, other health behaviors including substance use, and functioning variables, such as grades and violent behavior. The overall prevalence of stealin ... Continue reading---
