Manifest Anxiety and the Postinstitutional Adjustment of Young Offenders

Abstract

Staff members of the Vocational Rehabilitation Project at Oklahoma State Reformatory noted an apparent relationship between the anxiety shown by inmates at the time of release and their subsequent adjustment to the rehabilitation program. This observation was investigated by a systematic study involving the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale and ratings of postinstitutional adjustment by a sociologist, who closely observed the young of fenders on their return to society. It was found that those who scored in the mid-range on the Manifest Anxiety Scale were rated as satisfactory in adjustment, without exception. All those scor ing below 5 were rated as unsatisfactory, while approximately half those scoring above 10 were rated as satisfactory and half as unsatisfactory.