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PERSONALITY, SOCIAL SKILLS, ANOMIE AND DELINQUENCY: A SELF‐REPORT STUDY OF A GROUP OF NORMAL NON‐DELINQUENT ADOLESCENTS
Author(s) -
Furnham Adrian
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1984.tb00160.x
Subject(s) - juvenile delinquency , psychoticism , psychology , anomie , neuroticism , personality , extraversion and introversion , developmental psychology , poison control , clinical psychology , social psychology , big five personality traits , medicine , environmental health
Summary A group of over 200 ‘normal’ adolescents were administered self‐report measures of personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism), social skills, anomie and delinquency in order to establish which of three theories best predicted delinquency. Eysenck's personality factors, particularly psychoticism, correlated most highly with delinquency, while there is no correlation at all between self‐reported social skills and delinquency. Overall the males tended to have lower neuroticism but higher psychoticism and anomie scores. The results are discussed in terms of the various psychological theories of delinquency, and the implications of these results for treatment are noted. It was pointed out that because this study was restricted to well‐educated, middle class, above‐average sixth‐form college students the findings may not generalize to a group of convicted or institutionalized offenders. The limitations inherent in sell‐report measures and in studies of this sort are also considered.