The manifestation of deviant behavior in children brought up in an unfavorable social environment is an urgent problem that sociologists and psychologists have been struggling with for a long time. When analyzing the possibility of conducting research on this topic, the following question can be posed: Is an unfavorable social environment a direct prerequisite for the development of deviant behavior and violent inclinations in children? As an exploratory design, the observational (correlation) principle should be employed. This strategy does not involve conducting unique tests to identify new causal relationships and is intended to prove the existing correlation between the variables involved.
As an independent variable, upbringing in a disadvantaged social environment is proposed. To measure the required data, a scale of 0 to 5 can be utilized, where 0 means no child abuse within the family, and 5 suggests aggressive violence and continuous abuse by adults. The dependent variable is the manifestation of deviant behavior, which can also be measured by using this scale. In this case, 0 is the absence of manifestations of aggression or violence in the child, and 5 is the maximum cruelty toward peers and adults. Bad parenting may be considered an explanatory variable, and repetitive deviant behavior is a response one.
Each of the variables is categorical because it is not the amounts that are critical to evaluate but the grouping of target participants in accordance with the appropriate attribute. Therefore, they are neither continuous nor discrete variables since they are not quantitative. Based on the design used, a causal research claim can be made about the effect of adverse social environments on children’s behavior. As a lurking variable that may provide an alternative explanation for the outcomes of the research process, biological factors should be taken into account, namely the genetic predisposition to deviant behavior.