Screening for Disruptive Behavior of Institutionalized Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

Case records of 70 male adjudicated juvenile offenders were used to examine the utility of various demographic, intelligence, and personality variables in identifying youths likely to display disruptive/violent behavior while institutionalized. Stepwise discriminant function analyses revealed that variable combinations from the Psychological Screening Inventory and Shipley-Hartford Scale were generally the most effective in identifying disruptive youths, while Jesness Inventory Subscales added little to the classification process. Implications for the use of screening measures in identifying potentially disruptive youths at admission are discussed.