CONSEQUENTIAL THINKING IN FIRST-TIME JUVENILE OFFENDERS: A COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT PROGRAM
Abstract
A cognitive-behavioral treatment program designed to strengthen consequential thinking was developed and tested with male first-time juvenile offenders referred through the Tippecanoe County Probation Department. Research has shown that delinquent and aggressive children often fail to evaluate risks or consider the consequences of a behavior before acting: they are often aware of consequences, but fail to make use of them during problem-solving. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. Subjects in the Consequences plus Prompts (CP) condition viewed six slide presentations which detailed consequences of involvement in the juvenile justice system, and responded to "prompts" or discussion questions designed to help them reflect on these consequences through perspective-taking, evaluation, etc. The purpose of the presentations was three-fold: (a) to educate the subjects about consequences, (b) to help them label these consequences as negative and undesireable, and (c) to help them improve in their use of consequential thinking as a problem-solving strategy. Subjects in the Consequences Only (CO) condition viewed the same slide presentations, without receiving any "prompts." Subjects in the Attention Control (AC) condition received training in progressive relaxation for an equivalent number of sessions. Subjects in the CP condition demonstrated more knowledge of consequences than subjects in the CO condition, who in turn demonstrated more knowledge than subjects in the AC condition. No differences were found, however, on measures of consequential thinking or resistance to temptation obtained from subjects' responses to hypothetical dilemmas. There was, however, a trend in the expected direction: the mean score on the consequential thinking measure was higher for CP subjects. Significant differences did not occur across conditions in negative evaluation of consequences. However, a subject's view of the delinquent stereotype as ideal self was significantly predictive of his "resistance to temptation" score. Significant experimenter effects were found. These findings are discussed in light of future directions.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
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