School vandalism: Individual and social context

Six hundred Israeli students responded to a questionnaire dealing with five motives for participating in vandalism: anger/frustration, boredom, erosion, aesthetics, and catharsis (Cohen, 1984). As we did not find a coherent pattern, we created a variable comprising all five motives: general motivation. Four factors accounted for motivation to participate in destructive behavior: perceived level of vandalism at school, attitude toward school, attitude toward teacher, and school anxiety. Punishment, father's level of education, sense of hope, and class level did not have an effect on motivation to participate in vandalism. It was concluded that the social context is a crucial element in school vandalism.