NCJ Number
78033
Journal
Behavioral Disorders Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: (August 1978) Pages: 288-293
Date Published
1978
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Findings are reported from an effort to validate the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's National Strategy for Youth Development model by examining its application to a Pennsylvania aggregate sample of youth and constituent samples of whites, blacks, and Hispanics.
Abstract
The model is the basis for predicting associations among various dimensions involved in juvenile adjustment patterns. Basically, the model postulates that access to desirable social roles and the positive labeling of youth fosters commitment to society. The scales developed measure youth perceptions and attitudes with respect to alienation; access to socially desirable roles; positive versus negative labeling; normlessness versus conformity; powerlessness versus control; perceived access to education; perceived access to employment; perceived positive versus negative labeling by parents, teachers, and peers; and self-esteem. A sample of 5,994 12 to 19 year-old males and females, mostly white, were given a Youth Need Survey, including a self-reported delinquency scale and attitude scales measuring variables in the National Strategy for Youth Development model. Scale score correlation matrices obtained from the aggregate data and white, black, and Hispanic subsamples were compared with a hypothesis matrix specifying the direction of scale intercorrelations. Predictions were met without exception for the aggregate data and white subsample. Over four-fifths of the correlations were in the specified direction for the black subsample. Only two-fifths of the correlations met predictions in the Hispanic subsample. Perceived negative labeling by parents, teachers, and peers, as well as peer pressure, seems more pervasively associated with delinquency than does perceived access to educational and occupational roles. Tabular data and 19 references are provided. (Author abstract modified)