MEASURING SHORT-TERM CHANGE IN A JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY BY USE OF PERSONALITY INVENTORY DATA
Abstract
The research question was whether social adjustment, as measured by the Social Maturity Index of Gough and by the Social Maladjustment scale and the Asocial Index of Jesness, are adequately sensitive measures of change in correctional treatment programs over relatively short intervals. An additional question was which scale would be better to measure short-term change. The null hypotheses stated that no statistically significant changes would be reflected by any of the scales and that there would be no significant differences between instruments. Subjects were students entering the regular treatment program at Spencer Youth Center, a training school of the Tennessee Department of Correction. Twenty-one males and 12 females were pretested and posttested after 2 months on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the Jesness Inventory (JI). A one group design applying the t test for repeated measures for differences between means was employed to determine whether significant changes occurred from pretest to posttest. A two-factor analysis of variance was employed to verify any changes between testing sessions and also to determine any significant differences between the means on different instruments. For the female sample, no statistically significant differences were shown between the pretest and posttest means on the Gough Social Maturity Index of the CPI or on the Jesness Social Maladjustment scale. On the Jesness Asocial Index, there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest means at the .10 level. For the male sample, no significant differences were indicated on any of the three scales. The two-way ANOVA showed that no significant changes existed between pretest and posttest means but that significant differences between means on different instruments were observed. Further analyses showed significant improvement in the female sample on CPI Sy and Re scales and on the Jesness Al scale. The Jesness Wd scale showed decline. Males improved on no scales and declined on the CPI Ai, Ie, Py, and Fe scales. The conclusion is that neither the CPI nor the JI is significantly sensitive for short-term change measurement in juvenile correctional facilities. The JI showed greater sensitivity, however, particularly with female subjects.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
ANTHONY PENDERGRASS,
"MEASURING SHORT-TERM CHANGE IN A JUVENILE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY BY USE OF PERSONALITY INVENTORY DATA"
(1984).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI8529574.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI8529574