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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this study by Edelman and Goldstein was to examine and identify effective intervention for the treatment of juvenile delinquents. The authors investigated factors that contribute to the success of psychotherapy with delinquent youths by pairing different types of delinquents with different types of psychotherapeutic relationships.
METHODOLOGY:
A quasi experimental design was employed for this study. The authors conducted a primary analysis of cross-sectional data obtained from 108 adolescents, aged 14-17, obtained from 12 Division for Youth facilities across New York State. The authors' objective was to identify the type of therapist-client relationship most suited to effecting positive change in delinquent youth. Based on the belief that delinquent juveniles respond positively to a relatively impersonal and objective style of interaction with the therapist, the authors operationalized therapeutic relationships according to the therapist's level of empathy and genuineness. Different juvenile delinquent types were categorized using Warren et.al.'s (1966) Interpersonal Maturity level classification system (I-levels). This I-level typology basically characterizes developmental stages of interpersonal growth. Each level of this typology refers to the manner in which the juvenile perceives his/herself and his/her environment. Subcategories exist within each level and mirror the way in which the youth expresses his/her wants when interacting with the perceived environment. According to the authors, evidence has revealed that most delinquent adolescents fit into the second, third, or fourth levels (e.g., I2=unsocialized aggressive or unsocialized passive; I3=conformist immature, conformist cultural or manipulator; I4=neurotic acting out, neurotic anxious, cultural identifier, situational emotional reaction). The volunteers of this study were obtained from a larger pool of volunteers who had been categorized using the Jesness Inventory (1974) I-level classification system. Volunteers fell into 4 delinquent subtypes. These included: at the I3 level, conformist cultural (N=29), and manipulator (N=32); and at the I4 level, neurotic acting out (N=36) and neurotic anxious (N=11) subtypes.
To help identify the type of psychotherapy best suited to each of these juvenile delinquent types, three therapist-to-client communication styles were also included in this study. These were: 1) high empathy-low genuineness; 2) low empathy-high genuineness; and 3) high empathy-high genuineness. High and low empathy levels were operationalized based on the Carkhuff's (1969) Scale for Empathic Understanding in the Interpersonal Process. Trained interviewers met with the participating adolescents and communicated each empathy-genuineness condition an equal number of times in the interviewing sessions. The quality of the interviewer-client relationship formed the dependent variable for this study. Operationalization of this variable included: 1) clients attraction to, or liking for the therapist (the Clients Personal Reaction Questionnaire by Ashby et.al.1957 was utilized); 2) clients willingness to disclose personal information (Truax & Carkhuff's 1957 Depth of Self- exploration Scale was utilized); 3) clients willingness to meet with the therapist again ( this was concretized using four questions); and 4) clients actual behavior to attend a second interview with the therapist (record of attendance was utilized to measure the outcome of this variable). The authors hypothesized, that low levels of interviewer empathy would prove optimal for the conformist cultural, the manipulator and the neurotic acting out youths, and in contrast, high interviewer empathy would prove optimal for the neurotic anxious youth. The authors also hypothesized that high interviewer genuineness would prove optimal for all types of youths.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
A 3 X 4 factorial design including the four types of I- level-categorized youths crossed with the three interviewer communication conditions was employed. The authors reported that the above hypotheses were analyzed using Tukey (a) tests and the Fisher's Exact test to correct for unequal cell sizes and to analyze attendance data respectively. The authors reported that there were no significant differences between the three interviewer communication styles on any of the interviewer-subject relationship variables for the neurotic anxious subjects. The authors attributed this finding to the small sub-sample size. Only 61 of the 75 subjects who reported that they were willing to return for a second interview actually attended the final interview. The authors found that it is more likely that cultural conformist, manipulator and neurotic acting-out type delinquent youths will attend a second interview when the interviewer expresses low empathy-high genuineness, rather than when the interviewer communicates either high empathy-low genuineness or high empathy-high genuineness. The authors concluded that, as hypothesized, cultural conformist, manipulator, and neurotic acting out type adolescents reported greater levels of attraction to the interviewer, greater willingness to disclose personal information, and greater willingness to return for another interview, when the communication style of the interviewer was low empathy-high genuineness. Since, the majority of delinquent youth fall into the above I-level categories, it was suggested that a low empathy-high genuineness communication style by the therapist would be most productive for effecting change in these types of youth.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors argued that the results of this study support a prescriptive orientation to the therapist-client relationship. The authors prescribed a low empathy-high genuineness communication style for therapeutic relationships in which the clients fit the categories of delinquent adolescents who can be described as mistrustful, lacking psychological mindedness, hesitant to explore feelings and emotions, and distrustful of adults. The authors stated that these results augment the usefulness of prescriptive strategies in the rehabilitation of delinquent adolescents.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Late Adolescence
Early Adolescence
New York
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile Treatment
Offender Treatment
Delinquency Treatment
Delinquency Intervention
Mental Health Treatment
Psychotherapy
04-03 |