This study attempts to analyze the effectiveness of delinquency prevention program by employing the technique of mentoring, which has recently been receiving spotlight as a practical technique in social welfare for preventing recurrence of teenage del...
This study attempts to analyze the effectiveness of delinquency prevention program by employing the technique of mentoring, which has recently been receiving spotlight as a practical technique in social welfare for preventing recurrence of teenage delinquency.
For this end, 12 university students were chosen and they each underwent a prior-education in delinquency prevention program, which was conducted in a total of 4 sessions of mentor training since April.
This was followed by a delinquency prevention program in which both the mentor and the mentee participate in a total of 8 sessions, using the after-school hours from May to mid July.
Research method employed is analysis using non-parametric statistical methods such as Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. This is conducted in order to test the effectiveness in areas such as; problem solving ability, self-respect, interpersonal technique, flexibility in school adjustment, self-control, and impulsiveness, by examining the before- and after-case tests.
In order to evaluate effectiveness, 24 junior students with delinquency histories were requested through school social worker, out of which 12 were chosen as the experimental group.
The results for conducting delinquency prevention program which employs the technique of mentoring are as following.
First, as a result of confirming identity between experimental and comparative groups, they were identical in terms of problem solving ability, self-respect, interpersonal technique, and self-control but showed difference in terms of flexibility in school adjustment, and impulsiveness.
Next, in order to prove the first hypothesis proposed in this study, namely, "The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will have a higher sense of self-respect than the group which did not participate in such a program," the total scores for these two groups were compared. The result shows a statistically significant difference, therefore confirming the first hypothesis.
The second hypothesis is ''The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will have a better interpersonal technique than the group which did not participate in such a program." The total scores for the two groups are thus compared, the result of which showing a statistically significant difference, thus confirming the second hypothesis.
The third hypothesis is "The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will have a increased problem solving ability than the group which did not participate in such a program." The result of comparing the before- and after-case scores for the two groups yields a significant degree of increase for the experimental group, which is on a higher rate than that of comparative group, thus confirming the third hypothesis.
The fourth hypothesis, "The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will show an increase in flexibility in school adjustment than the group which did not participate in such a program" was examined by comparing the scores from both groups. The result shows a statistically significant difference. However this difference was already acknowledged in identity examination, thus the hypothesis that flexibility in school adjustment will be higher than comparative group is rejected.
The fifth hypothesis is that "The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will have a higher sense of self-control than the group which did not participate in such a program." The result of comparing scores for the two groups shows a statistically significant difference, thus confirming the fifth hypothesis.
Before- and after-case cores are compared in order to examine the sixth hypothesis, "The group which participated in a mentoring-included delinquency prevention program will have less impulsiveness than the group which did not participate in such a program." However, this result was not statistically significant, and therefore the sixth hypothesis is rejected.
In summary, the effectiveness of mentoring-included program is difficult to detect, in areas of flexibility in school adjustment and impulsiveness. The experimental group however scored higher than the comparative group in the areas of problem solving ability, self-respect, interpersonal technique, and self-control. Thus present analysis confirms that a delinquency prevention program which employs the mentoring method is effective in problem solving ability, self-respect, interpersonal technique, and self-control, all of which are factors related to teenage delinquency.
Through present thesis, the effectiveness of teenage counseling which utilizes mentoring method is confirmed. It is hoped that present thesis will become reference data for delinquency recurrence prevention programs, conducted at schools and teenage-related organizations which deal with teenagers with delinquency histories.