A Sociological Analysis of the Relationship between Media Literacy and Tendency to Delinquent Behavior (Case Study: Tabriz High School Students)

In recent years, the new media have been playing a central role in shaping the actions of teenagers, so that they have become an effective factor in maintaining social order or creating criminal behaviors. In the meantime, along with the increase in the use of new media, the discussion of media literacy has also gained special importance. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to study the relationship between media literacy and tendency to delinquent behaviors among high school students. So, 390 students of Tabriz city were selected multistage cluster sampling method. The data was collected taking surveying method and using a researcher-made questionnaire. The findings indicated that there is no significant difference between tendency to delinquent behaviors and gender and type of school. However, there is a significant difference between tendency to delinquent behaviors among students and their location or area of residence. Tendency to delinquent behaviors among respondents living in low-income areas is more than those living in semi-privileged and privileged areas. There is a significant negative correlation between the socio-economic status of students' families and students' media literacy with tendency to delinquent behaviors (-0.27) and (-0.33), respectively. Through applying structural equation modeling using Amos software, it was found that socio-economic status of families (-0.30) and media literacy (-0.33) affect students' tendency toward delinquent behaviors.