NCJ Number
180666
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 27 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 36-56
Editor(s)
Curt R. Bartol
Date Published
2000
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The authors investigated the prevalence of self-serving and self-debasing cognitive disorders and their specific relation to externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors in 96 incarcerated male and female delinquents and a comparison sample of 66 high school students.
Abstract
The HIT (How I Think) Questionnaire was used to measure self-serving cognitive distortions, while the CNCEQ (Children's Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire) was used to measure self-debasing cognitive distortions. A multidimensional scale was employed to assess personal competencies and problems of children and adolescents. The authors found incarcerated study participants had higher levels of cognitive distortions (self-serving and self-debasing) and problem behaviors (externalizing and internalizing) than comparison participants. Both self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions were associated with unique variance in overall problem behaviors. Most notably, self-serving cognitive distortions specifically related to externalizing behaviors, whereas self-debasing cognitive distortions specifically related to internalizing behaviors. Theoretical and treatment implications of the findings are discussed. 42 references and 2 tables