Correlates of Delinquent Behavior

Abstract

The goals of this study were to develop an objective method for discriminating delinquent from non-delinquent adolescents and to describe personal and social differences between the two groups. 493 adolescents were tested. A discriminant function using variables from the Color Pyramid Test, the High School Personality Questionnaire, and some academic and demographic variables achieved statistically significant discrimination approximating the “hit” rates of other studies. However, the proportion of false positives rendered the technique impractical for general use. The delinquents generally showed less control over their behavior and tended to come from poorer family situations. A new approach to delinquency prediction research was proposed.