The article is devoted to an urgent problem of modern society — the destructive behavior of adolescents. Destructive behavior is understood as behavior formed under the influence of the social, family and cultural environment, aimed at destroying material things, accepted norms and rules, as well as harming oneself and others. The article presents the results of a study of the influence of the characteristics of the family environment on the formation of a tendency to destructive behavior in adolescents. It is determined that the formation of a tendency to destructive behavior is influenced by the following parameters of the microsocial en vironment – the dominance and directivity of the mother, hostility and indifference of the father, disinterest in the life of the child, low level of family cohesion, frequent family conflicts.