Tendency to Delinquent Behaviors in Teenagers Due to Dark Personality Traits

Delinquency is one of the forms of social deviations and its spread endangers social life. This research was conducted to study the tendency to delinquent behaviors in teenagers with regard to dark personality traits.

In terms of its objectives this research is of an applied type and terms of method it is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this research was all teenagers aged 13 to 17 years in Noorabad Delfan city in 2022. The sample of the research was 370 teenagers who were selected by cluster sampling method. They answered online questionnaires of dark personality (Paulos and Jones, 2011) and delinquent behaviors (Pichero et al., 2019). The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multivariate regression using the simultaneous entry method using SPSS.26 software.

The results of the correlation coefficient showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the dark triad of personality and delinquency (P<0.001). The findings of multivariate regression showed that 35% of the variance of delinquency is explained by antisocial traits (psychopath), Machiavellianism and narcissism.

Juvenile delinquency should be considered through self-control and empathy training using evidence-based approaches in important and applied research.