ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare the differences of parental rearing attitude between incarcerated delinqent adolescents and adolescents attending school, in order to identifying the relationships between delinquent behavior and personality factors. METHODS: The subjects were composed of 94 incarcerated delinqent adolescents and 112 adolescents attending school. Subjects were required to complete self-report questionnare including PBI and 16 PF. RESULTS: In incarcerated delinqent adolescents, maternal care(MC) was significantly lower than in adolescents attending school and paternal overprotection(PO) was significantly higher than in adolescents attending school. Of the scores of 16 PF, incarcerated delinqent adolescents showed lower scores in intelligence(B), guilt-proneness(O), liberalism(Q1), self-control(Q3), tension(Q4), anxiety(ANX), superego(SUP) and creativity(CRE) than adolescents attending school. Of the correlation between the scores of PBI and 16PF in incarerated delinqent adolescents, each of superego(G), liberalism(Q1), and supergo(SUP) was negatively correlated with maternal overprotection. Liberalism(Q1) was negatively correlated with paternal overprotection. Stableness(C) was positively correlated with paternal care. Each of gulit-proneness(O), liberalism(Q1), self sufficiency(Q2), tension(Q4), and anxiety(ANX) was negatively correlated with paternal care. In adolescents attending school, groups classified by parental bonding pattern indicated that optimal bonding group(Group l) was correlated with more positive aspects of personality factors, and the affectionless control(Group lV) was correlated with more negative aspects of personality factors. In delinquent adolescents, however, results didn't match the above findings. CONCLUSION: The parent-child bonding patterns of incarcerated delinqent adolescents were related to multiple personality factors. In parental rearing of incarcerated delinqent adolescents, maternal care(MC) was lower and paternal overprotection(PO) was higher than in adolescents attending school. We suggest that personality factors of incarcerated delinqent adolescents are correlated with delinquent behaviors. However, early parent-child bonding patterns do not seem to be correlated with later personality development.