Individual and Contextual Traits as Determinants of Delinquency amongst Juveniles
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Date
2017
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The present study was undertaken to investigate the individual and contextual traits as
determinants of delinquency amongst juveniles. The sample comprised of 120 respondents in
16-18 years of age range, selected from observation homes of six districts, from three cultural
zones of Punjab. Further the sample was distributed over two sexes i.e. 80 juvenile delinquent
boys and 40 juvenile delinquent girls. A self structured sheet was used to procure information
regarding the socio-personal status of the respondents. Other scales used to collect the
relevant information for the study were: Eysenck’s Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck and
Eysenck 1975), Cognitive Style Inventory (Jha 1985), Social Maturity Scale (Rao 1986),
Emotional Maturity Scale (Singh and Bhargava 1990), Children’s Perception of Parenting
Style (Pyari and Kalra 2005), Peer Pressure Scale (Saini and Singh 2012). The results
revealed that majority of respondents reported accepting, overprotective and autocratic type of
parenting styles. Most of the delinquents had shown psychotic and introvert personality and
the most common cognitive style among delinquents was undifferentiated style. Low levels of
social and emotional maturity were found in most of the delinquents. As far as gender
differentiations are concerned delinquent girls had more introvert personality as compared to
delinquent boys whereas delinquent boys had shown more integrated cognitive style. The
study further depicted a positive significant correlation between delinquency levels and
psychoticism dimension of personality while a negative significant correlation was found
between delinquency levels and extraversion dimension of personality among delinquent
girls. A positive significant correlation in delinquent girls was found between delinquency
levels and intuitive cognitive style. A positive significant correlation was also found between
delinquency levels and peer pressure among delinquent boys and girls. A negative significant
correlation was found between socio-emotional maturity and delinquency level among
juvenile delinquent boys and girls.
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