Premium
The impact on behavioral training upon the knowledge and effectiveness of juvenile probation officers and volunteers
Author(s) -
Wood Gary,
Green Leon,
Bry Brenna H.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198204)10:2<133::aid-jcop2290100206>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , psychology , juvenile , clinical psychology , training (meteorology) , experiential learning , juvenile delinquency , applied psychology , medical education , developmental psychology , social psychology , medicine , pedagogy , genetics , physics , meteorology , biology
The feasibility of studying the effects of behavioral training for probation workers upon both the workers and their probationers was examined by randomly assigning ten probation officers and volunteers to a training group and a control group. Pre‐and post‐tests were administered to assess the knowledge and competence of the probation workers, various kinds of problem behaviors that the workers and parents observed in the delinquent youth, and various kinds of problem behaviors that the youth observed in themselves. The training included both didactic and experiential elements. The behavioral training significantly improved the knowledge and the competetnce of the probation workers and significantly decreased the number of problem behaviors observed by both the workers and the parents. No evidence was found that the workers' behavioral training affected the number of problem behaviors that the youth observed in themselves. The difficulties of conducting such a study are discussed along with recommendations for addressing these difficulties in future research.