Juvenile delinquency is a prevalent problem in many communities. Social learning theory suggests that delinquent behavior results from inadequate learning experiences, negative parent and peer models, and peer reinforcement for aggressive and other delinquent behavior. Since youths are often confronted with strong negative influences (parents, peers), the study and promotion of social skills training programs which provide youths with constructive tools for handling difficult situations seems of great importance. To enhance generalization of social skill training with delinquents, the effect of positive peer influence on these youths also seems worthy of examination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a social skills, problem solving training program for juvenile delinquents at the California Youth Authority. Also the relative efficacy of peer trainers as compared to adult trainers was examined. Lastly, the generalization of social skills to control delinquents exposed to treatment delinquents was assessed. Youths were divided into groups with peer trainers, adult trainers, and no trainer (control groups). Treatment groups received six training sessions, each being a different social skill or problem solving strategy.

Bibliography: pages 92-98. / Using a systems theoretical orientation the objective of this study was to implement a strategic approach for psychotherapeutic intervention with six male institutionalized white adolescents at a local custodial school. It was hypothesized that a strategic approach would control absconding for the duration of the investigation. Surveys of the literature were undertaken to provide the background to psychotherapeutic intervention with adolescents in custodial institutions, strategic psychotherapy and absconding. Absconding was selected as the condition for evaluating the interventions because it was an unambiguous indicator of school-based recidivism, viz., the adolescent was either on the property or he was not. The study was structured as a design-and-demonstrate investigation. Audiotape recordings were made during the sessions. Transcriptions of characteristic procedures and sequences of the strategic approach to psychotherapeutic intervention were presented, inter alia, paradoxes, reframing, metaphors, rituals, the declaration of therapeutic impotence. Evaluation of the interventions was based on follow-up interviews with the subjects and a qualitative analysis of risk of absconding aver the course of the intervention process. At the end of the investigation there was some evidence which suggested that five out of the six subjects were not as committed to absconding as they had claimed to be at the beginning of the study. The design of the study did not allow for the conclusion that the strategic approach for controlling absconding was of greater merit than any other form of intervention or no intervention at all. It was noted, however, that twelve of the eighteen potential subjects for the study indicated that they would abscond as soon as the opportunity arose. Therefore it was recommended that the issue of absconding be given priority in therapy on the admission of each new pupil. Given a strategic approach to addressing the issue of absconding in therapy, attention was drawn to a major aim of this type of intervention, viz., to generate a sense of personal autonomy. Hence a further recommendation was that once a pupil had made a commitment not to abscond, his sense of autonomy would need to be supported by an expeditious transfer to one of the more open hostels.

It was the purpose of this study to make application of Carl H. Rogers' non-directive method of psychotherapy in the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The study was set up in an effort to determine the value of such a treatment procedure as one method of treating this type of individual. The hypothesis to be tested was that non-directive psychotherapy would improve the personal and social adjustment of institutionalized delinquents. Supporting this general assumption the following three corollaries were assumed: (1) that improved personal adjustment would be reflected in adjustment inventories, (2) that improved social behavior would be reflected in social behavior rating scales, and (3) that the therapeutic objectives of interviews with each subject. The general hypothesis is supported to the extent that the results support each of the corollaries. In proceding toward an experimental test of the hypotheses, testing devices were selected for the purpose of detecting and measuring imporvement that may occur in the individual during the counseling process. The means used and described in the study for this purpose are (1) expressions of the subjects, (2) the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, (3) the California Test of Personality, (4) the Haggerty-Olson-Wickman Behavior Rating Schedules. Statements made by each subject were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were presumed to be indicative of better adjustment when they were of such a nature as to imply that the therapeutic objectives had been attained. The three other measuring instruments were administered to the eleven experimental subjects before, and after the counseling interviews. A comparison of the pre-test and end-test scores, was presumed to indicate the improved adjustment of the subject while the interviewing was in progress. Any improvement that might be measured by this procedure, however, may be thought of as having occurred, not only from the influence of non-directive counseling, but possibly from other sources.

The purpose of the project is to establish a data gathering system that will provide decision makers an information base on which to 1) Plan for current program maintenance, 2) Plan for program change and 3) Identify changes in student need as a basis for future Title I funding. In establishing the system, two requirements had to be met. First, the system had to be simple so a person with limited training could operate it. Second, the system had to keep individual students identifiable to facilitate treatment and academic program planning. Developing the system within these constraints required the data system to address such questions as 1) Who are the programs reaching and how often, 2) What and how much are the students doing in the programs and 3) What and how much are they learning from the program. The system is organized in three parts, each one providing graphic or tabulated data for analysis by Title I administrators, evaluators and planners. The purpose of Part I is to identity which students are participating in Title I programs. This part attempts to determine: 1) The total amount of attendance by each student in all Title I programs. 2) The frequency of attendance of all students in each Title I program. 3) The frequency of attendance of each student in each Title I program. The purpose of Part II is to identify what students are doing in the program. Participants are: 1) Identified in terms of total amount of participation by all students in each program. 2) Identified in terms of individual participation in the Pre-School program. The purpose of the third part of the system is to identify what students are learning in the programs. The means used to Measure student gains vary with each program. The four categories these means fall into are: 1) Graphs of academic test scores. 2) Graphs of performance test results. 3) Tabulations of the number of defined program activities successfully performed. 4) Subjective evaluative statements

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among four specific typologies of environmental factors and at-risk teenagers. The four typologies explored were influences by parents and peers, teachers, educational setting, and factors relating to school behavior. Six research questions guided the study and six null hypotheses were formulated and tested at the .05 level of significance. The degree of relationship between the independent variables and the environmental factors was analyzed by using the Independent samples t-test and One Way ANOVA. The study sample consisted of 195 middle school students in three counties in Northwestern North Carolina and Northeast Tennessee. The results of this study indicate significant relationships between students and two factors, teacher expectations and school behavior as studied in the three counties. The relationships between students and the factor, parents and peers, appear to be equally strong for all students in each of the three counties. This also held true for the factor, educational setting, and the students. An inherent purpose of this study was to enhance perceptions of the value of parent involvement, to encourage more research on the relationships between peers and student achievement, and to show that teacher expectations and the educational setting can have a positive impact on student achievement. Parents, peers, students, teachers, and educational settings are allies in that they share the common goal of helping students to become lifelong learners.

No description available.

Abstract: p. 266-268. Autobiography: p. 269-270. Bibliography: p. 257-260. Thesis (Ph.D.)—Boston University N.B.: Pages 197, 222, and 261 appear to be missing in all copies. We believe that these were all misnumbered by the author, and that no actual information is missing. / This is a psychological study of Protestant ministers' attitudes toward juvenile delinquency, and of their theological beliefs. The study has been guided by two hypotheses. The first hypothesis proposed that an interrelationship existed between a minister's attitudes regarding the causes and treatment of the different delinquencies and the degree of authoritarian or supportive tendencies in his personality. The second hypothesis assumed that an interrelationship existed between what a minister did in regard to juvenile offenders and his underlying attitudes toward causation and treatment. The survey of the ministers' theological beliefs focused on the possibility of an interrelationship between their beliefs and their attitudes toward delinquent behavior. Two methods were employed to collect data and test the hypotheses: a Juvenile Delinquency Attitude (JDA) scale was constructed and administered to ninety-two ministers; then forty of the seventy-four respondents completing the scale were interviewed. The questionnaire also contained the Fascism (F) scale, which measures implicit antidemocratic tendencies in the personality, and the Traditional Family Ideology (TFI) scale, which measures attitudes toward family structure and functioning on a democratic-autocratic continuum. Following are the findings. (1) The contrasting responses of the high (authoritarian) and low (supportive) scorers to the items of the JDA scale demonstrated the discriminatory power of the items and the interrelatedness of the authoritarian variables of the scale. (2) The test of reliability indicated a correlation of .95 of the JDA scale test-retest and of .92 from the test score correlations. These correlations show a high degree of consistency between the ministers' responses in the first and second administrations of the scale. (3) The correlation between the JDA and F scales was .831, between the JDA and TFI scales .817, and the correlation between the F and TFI scales was .774. These high correlations supported the hypothesis that a minister's internal frame of reference, i.e., his deep-rooted emotional dispositions, determined to a great extent, the nature of his attitudes toward the causes and treatment of juvenile delinquency. (4) The data obtained in the interviews with the high and low scorers supplemented their respective scores on the JDA scale. High scorers viewed causation on a symptomatic level, communicated an authoritarian philospphy of treatment, expressed messianic concepts regarding the role of the church in treatment, and indicated limited awareness and utilization of community resources. Conversely, low scorers revealed a comprehensive understanding of delinquent motivation, a supportive philosophy of treatment, an interpersonal view of the church as a rehabilitative resource, and a high awareness and utilization of community resources. In addition the high scorers tended to be authoritarian and low scorers supportive in their handling of youth offenders. This finding substantiated the hypothesis that a minister's treatment of youth offenders was related to his attitudes toward juvenile delinquency. (5) The measurement of the respondents' theological beliefs showed no significant correlation between their beliefs and their attitudes toward juvenile delinquency. The data revealed that both high and low scorers identified with similar theological positions. This finding indicated that religious beliefs can be reinterpreted to accommodate authoritarian ar supportive tendencies. The finding was supported by the significant scores of the high scorers on the messianic sentimentality variable of the JDA scale. While they agreed with the apparently supportive items of the scale, their agreement with a large majority of contradictory authoritarian items suggested that they may have intellectually accepted the conventional view of supportive pastoral care and still rationalized conflicting attitudes and dispositions toward juvenile offenders and offenses. On the basis of these data, therefore, it was concluded that a minister's deep-lying emotional dispositions, more than his abstract theological beliefs, generally determine the nature, extent, and effectiveness of his approach to juvenile delinquency. [TRUNCATED]

No description available.