Dimensions of Adolescent Alienation

A review of the psychological, sociological and educational literature indicated that the various conceptualizations of "alienation" could be fitted into five tentative categories appearing to have considerable overlap. An item pool developed to represent these categories of alienation was screened by expert review and pilot testing in the 9th grade and then administered to 500 "normal" adolescents in 9th-grade classes in four diverse communities in Minnesota: a rural area, a suburban area, and working class and inner city areas of a large city. Factor analysis identified three coherent dimensions in student responses, which were labeled "Personal Incapacity," "Cultural Estrangement," and "Guidelessness." Simple cluster scores constructed to represent these dimensions had internal-consistency reliabilities of .80, .70, and .67 respectively. Patterns of significant differences shown by analyses of variance among groups defined by community type, socio-economic status, ability, and sex, compared well with hypothesized patterns; the few exceptions were tenable. The scales provide concrete measures of alienation that may enable more meaningful investigation of its incidence, correlates, and causes.