Stealing Among Students: Causes And Remedies
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Stealing Among Students: Causes And Remedies
Abstract
Although stealing among adolescents appears to be quite widespread, the assessment of adolescent stealing and its relationship to other behaviours and health problems remains inadequate.
A large sample of high school adolescents (n = 3,999) was surveyed using a self-report survey that included 153 questions about demographic factors, thieving behaviours, other health behaviours such as substance use, and functioning variables including grades and violent behaviour. The overall rate of theft was 15.2% (95% confidence interval (CI), 14.8-17.0).
Twenty-nine students (0.72%) had symptoms consistent with DSM-IV-TR kleptomania. Stealing was substantially connected with poor grades, alcohol and drug usage, smoking, depression, hopelessness, and other antisocial behaviours (p <.05).
Stealing appears to be relatively widespread among high school kids, and it is linked to a variety of potentially addictive and antisocial behaviours. Significant anguish and loss of control over this behaviour indicate that stealing frequently has serious consequences.
The lifetime frequency of theft looks to be rather high. According to a recent major epidemiological study of individuals, 11.3% of the general population admitted to shoplifting at least once in their lifetime.
1 This figure is consistent with the National Association of Shoplifting Prevention’s estimate that one out of every eleven persons (9.1%) has shoplifted at some point in their lives.
2 Stealing in adults has been linked to other antisocial behaviours, psychiatric comorbidity (such as substance use disorders, pathological gambling, and bipolar disorder), and poor psychosocial functioning.
1 Stealing appears to begin in childhood or adolescence, with roughly 66 percent of people claiming that they started stealing before the age of 15.1
Despite the fact that theft begins at a young age and is associated with major adult morbidity, clinicians and researchers have typically paid little attention to stealing among teenagers. According to limited research, adolescents who steal have impaired problem-solving skills and a cognitive predisposition towards unsuitable answers.
3 Other research suggests that adolescent stealing is motivated by parent-child conflict, academic failure, and unfavourable peer effects.4
Although stealing is extremely frequent among adolescents, it is unclear how many of them suffer from kleptomania. Kleptomania, which is defined by a decreased ability to resist recurring desires to take goods that are not required for monetary or personal use, has received little attention throughout the lifespan, particularly among adolescents with stealing tendencies.
5 In this study, we examined a large sample of public high school students’ stealing behaviour. Although prior research reveals a link between theft and antisocial behavior,1,6 no study has extensively investigated the relationship between stealing and a variety of behaviours and health functions.
Given the lack of data on the co-occurrence of stealing and other characteristics among young people, the goal of this study was to fill those knowledge gaps. Specifically, we wanted to look at the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of different severity levels of stealing in adolescents, health correlates in high school students who steal, and the different severity levels and clinical characteristics of stealing, as well as differences in students whose stealing warranted a kleptomania diagnosis.
Recognising potential disparities in theft severity among adolescents could have clinical and health consequences. It is particularly critical to recognise links between theft and health variables, because recognising and addressing the stolen behaviour can dramatically improve the prognosis for other behaviours.
Methods
Study Procedures and Sampling
The study protocol has been published in detail.7 In summary, the study team sent invitation letters to all public four-year, nonvocational, and special education high schools in Connecticut.
These mailings were followed by phone calls to all principals of schools that received a letter, assessing their interest in participation in the survey.
To promote participation, we distributed a report to all schools following data collection that detailed the incidence of shoplifting and other health-related behaviours in that school. Schools who expressed interest were contacted to begin the process of securing permission from school boards and/or superintendents, as needed.
In addition, targeted contacts were undertaken with schools in geographically under-represented areas to ensure that the sample was representative of the state. As a result, the final survey includes schools from each geographical region of Connecticut, as well as schools from each of the state’s three tiers of district reference groups (DRGs; i.e., school groupings based on the socioeconomic status of the school district’s families).
Sampling from each of the DRG’s three tiers was meant to produce a more socioeconomically diverse sample. Although this was not a random sample of Connecticut public high school students, the demographics of the sample were close to those of Connecticut citizens enumerated in the 2000 census, ranging in age from 14 to 18.8
Once permission had been received from all relevant parties in each school, letters were sent to parents advising them about the study and describing the mechanism by which they might refuse permission for their kid to participate in the survey if they so desired. In most cases, parents were told to contact the main office of their kid’s high school to reject permission for their child to participate.
Based on these phone calls, a list of students who were ineligible to participate was generated for use on survey administration day. If no message from a parent was received, parental consent was presumed. These protocols were authorised by all participating schools as well as Yale University School of Medicine’s Institutional Review Board.
Most surveys were administered to the entire student body. Some schools held an assembly where questionnaires were distributed, while others required pupils to complete the survey in each health or English lesson throughout the day. In each case, members of the research team visited the school on a single day to describe the project, distribute surveys, answer questions, and collect surveys.
Students were informed that participation was voluntary and that they might decline to take the survey if they so desired. They were also asked to keep the surveys anonymous by not entering their names or other identifying information anywhere on the survey.
Each pupil received a pen for participating. children who were ineligible to participate due to a parent’s refusal or who personally declined to participate were permitted to work on academics while the other children completed the survey. The refusal rate was < 1%.
Measures
The survey included 153 items about demographics, thieving behaviour, other health behaviours such as substance abuse, and functioning variables including grades and violent behaviour.
Stealing behaviour was examined by enquiring how many times the individual stole from stores or persons in a given week. The possible options were: never, fewer than seven times, seven to fourteen times, fifteen to twenty times, and twenty-one or more times. Those who reported any stealing were then given six further questions.
Have you ever attempted to stop stealing things?
Has any family member voiced concern about how much time you spend stealing?
Have you ever skipped school, work, or other crucial social events because you were stealing?
Do you believe you have an issue with excessive theft?
Have you ever had an intense impulse to steal something?
Have you ever felt increasing strain or worry that could only be alleviated by stealing?
Three of the questions are based on the Minnesota Impulse Disorders Interview, a valid and reliable screen for teenage kleptomania.9 They reflect The criteria for kleptomania are outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision.
Attempting to reduce stealing and an overwhelming need to steal represent Criterion A; increasing tension or worry that can only be eased by stealing reflects both Criteria B and C.
5 As a result, students who answered yes to all three of these items were classified as having kleptomania, whereas those who reported stealing but did not agree with all three symptoms were classified as having nonkleptomania.
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