NCJ Number
100272
Journal
Journal of Correctional Education Volume: 36 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1985) Pages: 148-154
Date Published
1985
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Correctional educators should have an understanding of the relationship between a delinquent adolescent's work values and vocational development.
Abstract
Although Rosenberg (1954) and others have conducted extensive studies of work values for the general populace, this present study, using findings derived from the 1980 New Youth Survey of more than 12,000 youths by the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience (National Opinion Research Center and Center for Human Resource Research), concentrates on the 15- to 17-year-old delinquent population. A delinquency profile is developed and through cross-tabulation and logistic regression its relationship to the variable, work values in 1979, is determined. Results of the analysis indicate that a is determined. Results of the analysis indicate that a ''nonrelationship' exists between delinquency and work values. Even as delinquency increases, work values tend to remain stable. Other factors, such as gender, race, and suspension from school, appear to have a greater impact on work values than does delinquency itself. Given the tentative hypothesis that the work value concepts and occupational aspirations of delinquent youth do not differ markedly from those of the general populace, the findings of Rosenberg and others are relevant to this particular subset. Yet with the realities of dwindling public resources and the growing problem of youth unemployment and delinquency, effective alternative programs must be developed. Correctional and vocational educators have perhaps the clearest mandate to effect these changes. (Author abstract)