Secure attachment to parents and seperation-individuation in juvenile delinquents

In this study, after socio-demographic profiles of male adolescents were identified, it is aimed to examine the relationship between secure attachment of these individuals to their parents, separation anxiety and rejection expectation which are indicators of negativity or difficulties in the separation individuation process. Another aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between the level of secure attachment, separation anxiety and rejection expectancy of male juvenile delinquents and demographic variable of the crime type. The sample group is consisted of 325 adolescents aged between 12-18, based in İstanbul and reachable whose file cases were devolved to the İstanbul Anatolian Courtyard and referred to the social service unit with any criminal accusation which was selected by random sampling method. Personal information form, Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), Separation Anxiety and Rejection Expectancy sub-tests of The Separation Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA) were administered to all participants respectively. There was a statistically significant negative linear and moderately significant relationship between IPPA's secure attachment to parents and SITA's expectation of rejection scores. According to this, as the "secure attachment to parents" scores of IPPA decrease, "expectation of rejection" scores of SITA increases. No statistically significant relationship was found between IPPA's "secure attachment to parents" and "separation anxiety" of the SITA. As another aim of the study, the difference between the order averages of the crime type groups of the IPPA in terms of the type of crime of the sample group was found statistically significant. According to this, type of crime taken into consideration in the study, IPPA's "secure attachment to parents" scores of sample group of burglary (immunity of domicile, damage to property) are lower than the sample group of wounding crimes. Secondly, the difference between sample group's mean of order of crime type was found statistically significant, and according to this, crime type of burglary (immunity of domicile, damage to property) sample groups' SITA's rejection expectancy scores are higher than crime type of wounding group. The significant between SITA's "separation anxiety" scores in terms of mean order of crime type was not found statistically different.