Effects of extensive group therapy on incarcerated young men's attitudes toward themselves and prison staff

Abstract

A comparison was made on the effects of extensive group therapy (treatment for drug abusers) versus vocational training (no-treatment) on the attitudes of 67 incarcerated young then aged 17 to 24 years (wards). With a pretest-posttest matched control group design, attitudinal change toward themselves and the prison staff was assessed through two semantic differential measures. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in attitude change between the thirty-three volunteer treatment group wards and the thirty-four no-treatment group wards. Therefore, it was concluded that group therapy treatment had no rehabilitative advantage over vocational training. However, the analysis did reveal that wards who were convicted of crimes against persons reported more positive attitudinal change toward themselves and prison authority within three-month time period than did wards convicted of crimes against property.