LE3 .A278 1968

1968

Moore, Thomas

Acadia University

Master of Social Work

Masters

Social Work

Maritime School of Social Work

This study investigates the state of self-identity in male adolescents, delinquent and non-delinquent. It was a research project carried out in collaboration with two fellow students at the Maritime School of social Work, Halifax, Nova Scotia, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master's Degree in Social work. The data for the study were obtained from forty-nine adolescents at the Nova Scotia School for Boys in Shelburne and from nineteen non-delinquent adolescents at Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax. A subjective questionnaire was administered, which was designed to elicit the conscious attitudes of the respondents in relation to self-identity. Data collected were evaluated by means of the median variation of the Chi Square formula. The results of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the self-identity of the delinquent adolescents and the self-identity of the non-delinquent adolescents. Further analysis was pursued into component areas of the total self-identity crisis, which adolescents experience to determine in which of these areas the difference between the two sample groups might be most striking. It was found that the difference was clearly significant only in the area of Time Perspective versus Time Diffusion. It was concluded that the search for one's own identity as seen in adolescent behavior, specifically delinquent behavior, was of no little importance. Comments and recommendations have been offered in this regard.

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