In the present study, it was hypothesised that the emotional competence of delinquent adolescents would be comparatively lower than normal adolescents and would they have higher level of aggressive behaviour. To test this, the present study was conducted on 25 delinquent adolescents from Observation Home and equal number of adolescents for control group from a high school and Pre-university college. Emotional competence and aggression scales were administered individually for them. The self-reported responses of the subjects were recorded, scored and subjected to ‘t’ analysis. It was found that the institutionalised delinquent adolescents had lower emotional competence and expressed higher level of aggressive behaviour in the social situations as compared to their normal counterparts.
Journal of Indian Health Psychology Vol. 3, No. 2, March, 2009