Future orientation of institutionalized and non institutionalized

GISELA TROMMSDORFF Technische Hochschule, Aachen HELMUT LAMM Universitat, Koln The present study is an analysis of the relationship between delinquency, institutionalization and future orientation, based on a social-learning theoretical framework. Two hundred and forty male adolescents (institutionalized and noninstitutionalized delinquents and nondelinquents) answered open and structured questions concerning their anticipations and evaluations of the future. The data were analysed by analyses of variance and t-tests and partly confirm the hypotheses: Delinquents structure their future in a less differentiated, less extended, and more internal way than nondelinquents. This was especially true for the institutionalized delinquents. However, delinquents structured their fears concerning their personal development more extensively than nondelinquents. Future orientation varied according to the length of institutionalization in different domains of life. These results do not support the dominant assumption of the literature that delinquents have an unrealistic future orientation. Rather, it is shown here that institutionalized delinquents anticipate rather negative future events which they expect to occur shortly after the time of their release. However, the present results have to be cautiously interpreted on account of the special selection of the sample and the rather short duration of institutionalization. Also, the method of a differentiated measurement of future orientation used here is hardly practiced in the literature though such a conceptualization as a multidimensional construct seems to be theoretically fruitful. 'This study was conducted at the Sonderforschungsbereich 24, Sozialwissenschaftliche Entscheidungsforschung, Universitat Mannheim (West Germany) and financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, with support from the Government of Baden-Wiirttemberg. The first author directed the project of which this study is a part of. The data have been collected by S. Hormuth, 1. Michelitsch, and H. Scheuermann for the Diploma Thesis. Wolfgang Woerner made valuable suggestions for the data analysis. We especially thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments.