Personality and delinquency: Further multivariate work with discriminant variables in samples of Scottish delinquent and non-delinquent boys

The first paper (Forrest, 1977) presented results of applying Professor H. J. Eysenck's theory of personality to Scottish delinquent and non-delinquent adolescents. Further validation of these discriminant items and factors is here presented using another set of constructs (Jesness 1962, 1963) which had already (Vallance and Forrest, 1971) shown usefulness when applied to a Scottish adolescent population. One hundred and thirty items from two questionnaires produced discriminant factors called (i) Anti-social Reaction; (ii) Neuroticism; (iii) Isolation from Family; (iv) Inadequacy/Immaturity; (v) Psychoticism. The behavior of these dimensions was examined using more homogeneous subgroups of delinquents and using the Cattell 16 P.F. questionnaire. It is concluded that the factor patterns identified in these two studies of children from the West of Scotland may refer to personalities organized adoptively about "hostility" in a condition of "angry despair".