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The effects of conversational management on female delinquents in a correctional setting
Abstract
The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the intent was to test a conversational management treatment intervention that could improve the behaviors of juvenile females in a correctional facility. Second, it was designed to help researchers in the area of pragmatics develop an understanding of conceptual issues drawn from the social skills literature. The conversational management treatment intervention (Face-to-Face program) was applied to an experimental group of females residing in a youth correctional facility with the hypothesis that improved social skills and decreased rule violations would occur when the experimental group's post-treatment measures were contrasted with those of a control group and a non-weighted control group. Each group's post-treatment measures were evaluated using a MANOVA of main effects to determine if there were significant differences across group means. The Tukey-HSD post hoc test was used to compare group means. Results of the Tukey HSD tests showed no significant effects for the experimental group that received treatment when compared with the non-weighted control group and control group on the post-treatment Major Behavior Infraction Reports (MBIR). However, on the post-treatment Minor Infraction Report (MIR), there was a significant difference between the experimental group and non-weighted control group, but there was no significant difference between the experimental and control group. Additionally, on the post-treatment SSRS Social Skills quotient, there was a significant difference between the experimental group and the non-weighted control group. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group. Although there was a significant difference between the experimental group and non-weighted control group on the MIR and Social Skills quotient (SSQ), these results are inconclusive. Methodological factors beyond the control of the study may have influenced the performance of the non-weighted control group. Implications for pragmatic conversational management interventions and additional areas for future research are discussed along with the integration of conceptual issues drawn from the social skills literature.
Subject Area
Special education|Criminology
Recommended Citation
Belau, Donald P, "The effects of conversational management on female delinquents in a correctional setting" (2001). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3034361.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3034361