Traumatic Experiences, Dissociation and Attitudes Toward Delinquency in the Juvenile Male Delinquents

Abstract

Objective: In this study the factors associated with juvenile delinquency were investigated by focusing on childhood trauma and dissociative experiences. Methods: Forty male adolescents (13-15 years old) referred to Yuzuncu Yil University, Medicine Faculty, Department of Psychiatry for forensic psychiatric evaluation and 40 male adolescents with mild infectious disease from pediatric outpatient clinic as control subjects were included in the study. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) and Attitudes toward Delinquency Scale (ADS) were administered to the children to collect data. Result: Compared to control group, emotional abuse scores of juvenile delinquents were significantly higher. There was no significant difference between groups for CTQ emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect and total scores. The ADS scores of juvenile delinquents were found significantly higher than control group. While the A-DES passive influence scores of juvenile delinquents significantly higher than control group, there were no differences for A-DES amnesia, absorbsion, depersonalition and total scores between two groups. The ADS scores of juvenile delinquents were significantly associated with CTQ scores except for physical neglect whereas the ADS scores of control subjects were only associated with emotional abuse scores. Lower economical level, A-DES passive influence, CTQ emotional neglect and ADS scores were significant predictors of delinquency in logistic regression model. Conclusion: Socioeconomical factors, traumatic experiences and passive influence tendency of juvenile boys are associated with attitudes toward delinquency and delinquent behaviours through reciprocal influences and feedback. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2011; 12:68-75)