Right-wing extremism among adolescents: The impact of academic success andparental control

The study presents empirical material on risk factors for and protection fa ctors against school vandalism and right-wing extremism among adolescents, focusing primarily on the role of school success and parental control. With in the theoretical framework of Coleman's social capital approach and Elder 's interactionist approach to socialization, a model is presented that sees the leisure style of delinquent drift as the most important risk factor fo r school vandalism and right-wing extremism. Anomie in times of societal an d economic crises is seen as a secondary risk factor only School success an d parental control are viewed as the primary protection factors against sch ool vandalism and right-wing extremism, because they prevent juvenile tende ncies to act out a pro-delinquent leisure style. School success, however, h as individual and systemic facets. Students can have success in the school system by going to the most prestigious school type (Gymnasium), and they c an have individual success, by getting good grades in any school type. Both types of success have to be distinguished. The model is tested by studying a socially heterogeneous panel (N= 590) of seventh to tenth graders from E ast and West Berlin in 1992 and 1993, replicating a study conducted the yea r before. Analyses only partially confirm our model. Delinquent drift prove s to be a decisive risk factor for school vandalism, but not directly for r ight-wing extremism. Individual school success is a protection factor again st school vandalism, whereas success in the system school is a protection f actor against right-wing extremism. Parental monitoring is less important t han expected. Only for students with less systemic school success it serves as a protection factor against anomie, and by that indirectly against a le isure style of delinquent drift.