NCJ Number
101879
Date Published
Unknown
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact of degrees of official intervention on three measures of juvenile self-concept to determine if the impact of labeling varies by type of offense.
Abstract
Study data were collected during 1976-78 as part of the Connecticut Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders project. Three measures of self-concept (delinquent, sick, and good) were developed using a principal-component method of factor analysis (Kim, 1975). This was the dependent variable. One independent variable was delinquent experience, measured by juveniles' self-reports on 26 offenses grouped into 6 categories: assault, property, drug abuse, vice, runaway, and 'rotnkid' (cutting classes, staying out without permission, disobeying parents and teachers, and truancy). Another independent variable was official response to delinquent behavior measured by self-reported arrests within the past 6 months. Multiple regression analyses indicate that even after the removal of delinquent experience, there is a statistically significant direct path from arrests for assault and running away offenses to 'delinquent' self-concept and from arrest for vice offenses to 'sick' self-concept. There is little evidence that delinquent experience independently influences self-concept. A discussion of the complexity of self-concept development cautions against assuming a simplistic relationship between official contact and negative juvenile self-concepts. Tabular data and 26 references.