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Multidimensional Self-Concept

Age and Gender Differences in Australian High School Students Involved in Delinquent Activities

School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, a.carroll{at}uq.edu.au

Stephen Houghton

Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Robert Wood

School of Business, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Catherine Perkins

School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Julie Bower

School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

The present research examined the relationship between self-concept and level of involvement in delinquent activities of 1327 (612 males, 715 females) years 8—12 high school students. Through cluster analysis, participants were identified as having either high or low involvement in delinquent activities from scores on a self-report measure of delinquency. Three multidimensional areas of self-concept (classroom, peer and confidence) were investigated, because of previous findings indicating discrepancies in these three dimensions for adolescent involvement in delinquent activities. Four, two-way multi-variate analyses of variance were conducted across the three self-concept dimensions for Gender, Year Level, and involvement in Delinquent Activities. Students highly involved in delinquent activities reported significantly lower classroom, peer and confidence self-concepts. For gender and year level effects, males reported significantly higher confidence self-concept while females scored significantly higher on peer self-concept. There were significant differences among year levels with a general decline in confidence self-concept with age but for classroom and peer self-concept, no clear age trends were evident. The results indicate the importance of considering multidimensional self-concept when examining adolescents' involvement in delinquent activities and incorporating self-concept enhancement strategies in intervention programs.

Key Words: adolescents • age and gender differences • delinquency • self-concept

School Psychology International, Vol. 28, No. 2, 237-256 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0143034307078106


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