Public School Attitudes toward Juvenile Delinquents

Abstract

This study is based upon data acquired in the assessment of public school attitudes toward epileptics in the United States. A questionnaire, utilizing the semantic differential technique, was mailed to 510 administrators in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. A total of 375 of the 417 returned instruments were usable in the statistical analyses. The factor structure for each of the ten concepts was determined and com pared to the factor structure for the total group. The factor structure for the juvenile delinquent and the generally negative ratings are reported here. Factor analysis of the responses to the juvenile delinquent concept revealed the dominant dimension of administrators' attitudes to be fear-provoking. The usually dominant factor of evaluation found in most other studies utiliz ing the semantic differential technique was found to be relatively minor in the factor structure of the attitudes toward juvenile delinquents.