Socio-economic and gender aspects of youth risk behaviours in Croatia

Mirjana Adamović, PhD, Anja Gvozdanović, PhD and Dunja Potočnik, PhD are the authors of the scientific paper “Socio-economic and gender aspects of youth risk behaviours in Croatia”, published in “Sociology and Space”, 61 (1).

Using a sociological approach, this paper analyzes risky behaviors and their correlation to sociodemographic characteristics of youth in Croatia. Two theoretical approaches are applied. The first approach employs a class or socioeconomic perspective that considers social position as an important determinant of behavior choices. The second approach examines risky behaviors in the context of sociocultural factors, specifically gender dimensions. Both approaches seek to theoretically approximate the concept of habitus developed by Bourdieu. The results of this empirical research indicate a consistent presence of gender differences that can be attributed to a strong masculine culture that genderizes risky behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, and other deviant behaviors. Socioeconomic characteristics, on the other hand, depend to a greater extent on the type of risky behavior. Socioeconomic status is a significant independent variable, but with different directions of association to some risky behaviors such as alcohol consumption and behavioral deviations. Socioeconomic status is positively associated with the experience of alcohol consumption and (auto)destructive behaviors, while it is negatively and significantly associated with behaviors that can be labeled as deviant in the context of education. This paper is based on a quantitative research conducted in 2018 on a sample of 1500 respondents aged 14 to 29 from across Croatia.

The paper is available at the link.