The purpose of this research is to categorize juvenile delinquents, who are currently imprisoned, by their different types of crime and analyze the relationships among anxiety, depression, and ego identity which are factors hypothesized to significant...
The purpose of this research is to categorize juvenile delinquents, who are currently imprisoned, by their different types of crime and analyze the relationships among anxiety, depression, and ego identity which are factors hypothesized to significantly affect career indecision. Furthermore, by verifying the effects of the three factors to career indecision, this paper will explore whether these factors affect differently for each crime types. This paper seeks to find the following questions:
1. Do differences exist in career indecision, anxiety, depression, and ego identity corresponding to each crime type?
2. Do anxiety, depression, and ego identity affect career indecision corresponding to each crime type?
The author conducted a survey on 314 male juvenile delinquents currently imprisoned in Cheon-An prison.
Major findings of this research paper are the following. First, the largest number of juvenile delinquents was from the ages 16 to 20 years old. This age group also had the highest rate for school dropouts and work experience before being imprisoned. Second, aggravated assault group showed the highest level of anxiety and depression compared to other crimes. Property crime group indicated a significant difference in and the highest level of environmental factors and subjectivity, a subordinate category of ego identity. Violent crime group showed a significant difference in and the highest level of self-acceptance. Third, career indecision revealed a significant correlation with anxiety, depression, and ego identity; anxiety and depression showed a significant correlation with ego identity; ego identity indicated a significant correlation with anxiety, depression, and career indecision. Fourth, anxiety and depression affected the career indecision of the aggravated assault group and the vocational indecision of the property crime group. Moreover, uncertainty and goal-orientation, both subordinate categories of ego identity, influenced career indecision of aggravated assault juvenile delinquents whereas goal-orientation affected the necessity for vocational education. Uncertainty affected career indecision of the property crime group.
This paper concludes that through the study of juvenile delinquents of different types of crime, anxiety, depression, and ego identity may significantly affect career indecision of aggravated assault and property crime groups.