No abstract

PROBLEMTo the extent that delinquent behavior is associated with personality variables, the use of objective-type psychological tests appears as an efficient and economical procedure for the large scale evaluation of delinquents. M~nachesi'~) and others (1. 2 ) have demonstrated clear-cut differences between delinquents and other adolescent populations using the Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory (MMPI) with the PD, PA, Sc, and MA scales most effective. Personality characteristics associated with delinquent behavior can be identified in adolescents with the MMPI preliminary to contact with law-enforcement agencies. In a study of 4,000 ninth grade students in Minneapolis who were administered the MMPI, Hathaway and Monachesi ( 3 ) found that 250 boys who subsequently came to the attention of the police were significantly different from the adolescent boys who did not become delinquent on the F, PD, MF, PA, SC, and MA scales.Again using the MMPI, Caditz'l) confirmed the presence of personality differences on the PD, PA, and MA scales between unselected high school studept,s and boys committed to a state training school. Retesting both groups following a sixmonth stay at the training school by the delinquent group revealed little modification of differences between the two groups. It was noted that the PD variable, the scale deemed the one most appropriate measure of specifically delinquent traits, was particularly resistant to improvement as a result of the training school experience.The present study tests the hypothesis that a forestry camp experience will have the effect of modifying delinquent boys in the direction of becoming less like delinquent and more like nondelinquent adolescent populations. A forestry camp differs from a training school in various important respects. Typically, a forestry camp maintains a smaller population -of boys, usually not more than 35, whose activity program is oriented toward a full work day in the outdoors. Individual supervision and external controls are less than those found at the usual training school, although each boy is expected to conform to the requirements of close group living and routine job performance. PROCEDUREThe forestry camp group was drawn from boys assigned to the Cedar Creek Youth Forestry Camp at Little Rock, Washington, during a five-month period. These boys were selected from 195 cases judged delinquent by the various courts of the state and transferred to the State Reception and Diagnostic Center for juveniles where psychological tests were administered.Selection for the forestry camp is based on a minimum age requirement of 15% years, physical fitness, and a judgment that the individual is not a major security risk. Of 17 boys eventually selected for the forestry program, 15 were retested with the MMPI immediately preceding parole after an average interval of 5 months and 17 days. Failure to include the other two cases resulted from abrupt out-of-state paroles, which precluded testing. The average age of this group was 16 years, 6 months.Two other groups,...