Ato Infracional na Adolescência: Revisão Integrativa dos Estudos na Perspectiva da Teoria Geral da Tensão

Abstract

The General Strain Theory (GST) argues that situations/circumstances likely to generate tension foster negative emotions which, in turn, may create conditions for adolescents to manifest antisocial behaviors/offences as a coping strategy and/or as a way to relieve tension. An integrative literature review was conducted, with the objective of systematising and synthesising findings of studies, based on the GST, published in the last 11 years, aiming to circumscribe the contributions of this referential. The search was conducted on the Academic Search Premier, Web of Science and PsycINFO, with the keywords “General Strain Theory” AND “Juvenile delinquency”. To include the study into the review, the criterias were to have: (1) adolescents as target audience; (2) outcome variable “offences”; (3) GST as referential; (4) and being empirical. Fifty-four studies were selected. The results were organized into the following categories: (a) Sources of tension (events/situations likely to generate tensions, linked to the structure/functioning of society, community characteristics, school and family, linked significantly to involvement in offending, but also to other outcomes); (b) The different sources of tension by gender (in parallel with the common sources: romantic break-ups, financial stress and criminal victimisation); (c) Mediators and Moderators (anger, as predicted by the GST, is the main mediator; strong social bonds and positive family relationships stand out as moderators). The GST contributes by shedding light on the various sources of tension that permeate adolescent development and on the subjective dimension of emotions that may underlie the involvement of youth in offending. However, the relationships between tension and offending must be critically interpreted.Keywords: General Strain Theory, infractions, adolescence, emotions, literature review