Educationally Disadvantaged Older Youth: Delinquent Behaviors

Antisocial behaviors are related to failure in school, dropping out of school, dishonorable discharge from the military, severe depression, alcohol and drug abuse, violence toward others, and lifelong dependence on various social service systems (Kazdin, 1985; Patterson, Reid, & Dishon, 1992). Studies of five programs used involvement with the criminal justice system or delinquent behaviors as measures of antisocial behavior (JC, JS, JTPA, NHV, YC). Generally, findings were mixed. Participants in Job Corps were somewhat less likely than their counterparts in the control group to have been convicted of a crime or to have spent time in jail (JC2). Of those who had spent time in jail, there were no differences in length of time between the two groups (JC). On the other hand, a study of the Nurse Home Visitation Program found that children of participants exhibited significantly fewer convictions and violations of probation at age 15 than children of youths in the control group (NHV2).