NCJ Number
97250
Date Published
1982
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This chapter describes a 1961-62 experiment in which approximately 400 seventh grade youth in inner city schools in Kansas City were divided into experimental and control groups and assigned to work/study and school settings. The youth were identified as socially maladjusted.
Abstract
The work experience program is discussed, and the identification of subgroups of students to represent differences in patterns of response to school and to the work/study program is reported. An assessment conducted in the final 2 years of the study, which focused on each individual's adjustment pattern, is examined. The grouping of experimental and control youth into five subgroups -- seriously maladaptive, marginal, erratic, work adaptive, and school adaptive -- is reported. Police reports on experimental and control group delinquency rates are compared; differences in the relative numbers of experimental and control youth arrested were found to be minimal for the late adolescent period. However, for the early adolescent period, experimental youth showed much more involvement with the police than did the controls (51 percent to 36 percent, respectively). In substance, the work/study program did not reduce the delinquency rate. Late adolescent adjustment types are characterized; for example, almost one-third of the experimental youth and slightly over one-fourth of the controls were rated 'work adaptive,' and 19 percent of experimental youth and 15 percent of control youth were rated 'seriously maladaptive.' Family and social background factors are considered, and the youths' lack of adequate family support, successful male role models, and adequate mathematics and reading skills are highlighted. Two tables are included.