An investigation into school attitudes of adolescent juvenile delinquents and perception of those attitudes by school personnel

A 33 item questionnaire in which subjects responded on a Likert scale was developed. This questionnaire was completed first by juvenile delinquents, and then by school personnel who responded as they perceived a juvenile delinquent would. Twenty-nine juvenile delinquents and 44 school personnel participated in the study. Statistical analyses using t tests for independent sample means revealed significant differences between both groups as a whole, and in item-by-item analyses. It was concluded that juvenile delinquents do have positive attitudes toward school, and that there is a major gap in perception of those attitudes by school personnel.