The effect of the Youth Attendance Centre Guided Group Interaction Counselling program on the self-concept and on the rate of recidivism among selected juvenile delinquents
Date
1974
Authors
Perry, Philip Eric
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of Youth Attendance Centre Guided Group Interaction Counseling (GGIC) on the self-concept and on the recidivism rate of selected juvenile delinquents, Specific hypotheses to be examined were:
1. Individuals exposed to guided group interaction counselling will show greater improvement in self-concept than individuals not exposed,
2. Individuals exposed to guided group interaction counseling will show & lower rate of recidivism than individuals not exposed.
The sample consisted of J-1-3 habitual male offenders between the ages of 13 and 16 randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group experienced the Youth Attendance Centre GGIC as well as probation. All subjects completed the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) prior to assignment and again approximately one year later. In addition, the experimental group members completed a Group Experience Evaluation Form during the follow-up testing.
Thirty-nine ind1viduaJs completed all phases of the study; 21 from the experimental group and 18 from the control group. Recidivism were collected and data treatment procedures were carried out on only these 39 subjects.
The Mann Whitney U Test was used to test posttest differences between experimental and control groups. Significant results were obtained at the .05 level for Total Self Concept. The Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Ranks Test was used to test the differences between recidivists (R) and non-recidivists (NH) on the pre- and posttests of the TSCS. Both experimental and control NH groups showed a positive change for the Total Self Concept significant at the .01 and .05 levels respectively.
A χ² comparison of the proportion of recidivists for the experimental and control groups yielded a χ² value of 3.28 and 6.17 for 6 and 12 month post experiment periods respectively. The latter value was significant at the .05 level. A χ² comparison of the rate of recidivism for the experimental and control groups one year before assignment and one year after program completion yielded a χ² value of 4.91 significant at the .05 level.
The above evidence indicates that the affect of GGIC on the self-concept and on the recidivism rates of selected habitual young offenders was significant. Implications for these results are discussed along with the need for more rigorously defined experimental conditions such as random assignment to group, careful definitions and control of treatment programs and follow-up procedures.