Effects of hostility and referent status on increase adolescents’ escapism: a mediated moderation model

The study reviews the problem of adolescents’ escapism, in particular its origin. The theoretical basis involved concepts A.L. Zhuravlev, A.B. Kupreichenko’s self-determination of the person and A.Sh. Huseynov’s protest activity of personality. A dynamic model of adolescents’ escapism has been developed theoretically and empirically. This study used data from 227 adolescents aged 12 to 16 years. Research methods included BDHI (A.H. Buss, A. Durkee; adaptation by A.K. Osnitsky), R.B. Cattell’s 16PF (adaptation by A.G. Shmelev et al.), the referentometry. Data is analyzed by A.F. Hayes’ mediated moderation analysis with Process Macro Version 3.4 based on IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 software program. Intellectualized hostility is defined as a key factor in mediated moderation model and included a stable component of self-determination “Radicalism” and a dynamic component of self-determination “Hostility” (F(222) = 4.62, p = .03, R2 = .02). The intellectualized hostility predicted adolescents’ escapism (F(3, 222) = 10.9, p = .01, R2 = .16). This relationship was mediated by referent status (qX®Y = .14; BootSE = .08; BootLLCI = .0189; BootULCI = .3174). The specificity of the adolescents’ escapism “double conflict” is characterized. Current future directions are considered and practical recommendations are given.