The Effects Of A Gender Specific Structured Group On Locus Of Control And Self Esteem Of Adjudicated Adolescent Girls

Many adverse conditions place adolescent girls at risk for developing negative outcomes as adults, including poverty, living in violent and dysfunctional families, and a history of victimization. Yet many children who are at risk for becoming delinquent develop into competent and productive adults. These individuals have been found to possess protective factors that meditate or moderate effects of negative life events. An external sense of control and poor self-esteem has been linked to several maladaptive behaviors, including delinquency among adolescent girls. A review of the literature revealed that adolescent girls who find their way into the juvenile justice system share many of the same problems as their male counterparts as well as problems that are unique to their gender. the present study is a program evaluation of a gender-specific structured group intervention that was offered to adolescent delinquent girls residing in non-secure residential programs in New York State. the purpose of the study was to learn if a gender-specific support group, the Girls' Circle, impacted upon the locus of control and self-esteem amongst girls who participated in the program. the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children was used to determine each participant's perceived locus of control and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale was used to evaluate self-esteem measures, before and after the implementation of the support group. Data collected were analyzed using the independent samples t-test and the paired samples t-test. Based on the results of the independent samples t-test, posttest self-esteem scores in the experimental group were not significantly different from posttest self-esteem scores in the control group. Paired samples t-tests revealed significant between group differences in self-esteem from pretest to posttest. These results suggest that although participation in the 8-week gender-specific structured group did not result in a significant increase in self-esteem scores between groups, there was a significant within group difference. Differences in posttest locus of control scores between the treatment group and the control group were found to be marginally statistically significant, suggesting an improvement in inner control following the intervention. the results of these findings offer important information on serving the needs of at-risk adolescent girls as well as girls already entrenched within the juvenile justice system. Study implications and recommendations for future research are included.