Delinquency as a Function of Intrafamily Relationships

Abstract

Observation of delinquent boys in a treatment setting sug gested that they were characterized by premature autonomy, attitudinal distance from the family, and lack of factual knowledge about family members. The more outstanding were these manifestations of emancipation from the family and parental authority, the greater appeared to be the boy's commitment to delinquent values and the less his response to treatment. These observations indicated that a measure of family knowledge might be an efficient indicator of commitment to delinquency and of potential for treatment. A Family Information Test (FIT) containing thirty-two factual questions about family members was empirically developed and administered to 312 experimental subjects and one hundred controls. It revealed the following:

1. Delinquent boys possessed significantly less family informa tion than the nondelinquent controls.

2. Sixteen nondelinquent brothers of experimental subjects possessed significantly more family information than the latter and significantly less than sixteen matched nondelinquent non- siblings.

3. Of all the variables studied, FIT scores, Delinquency Classifications, and Treatment Prognoses demonstrated the highest correlations with Treatment Outcome.

4. The equivalence of the above correlations indicated that FIT scores were acceptable substitutes for the expert ratings of delinquent boys by treatment personnel.

5. The FIT reliability of .75 was established by the split-half method.

6. The FIT's validity was tentatively established on the basis of (a) independent evidence of objective factors associated with delinquency and (b) significant results from Criterion Measure predictions independently made from one half of the experimen tal group to the other.

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