College of Education Theses & Dissertations

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Browsing College of Education Theses & Dissertations by Author "Knopes, David Ryan"

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    Motivating Change in High-Risk Adolescents: An Intervention Focus on the Deviant Friendship Process
    (University of Oregon, 2004-03) Knopes, David Ryan
    The purpose of the following literature review is not to exhaustively survey the current state of delinquency intervention science. Rather, the goal is to clearly delineate the developmental and peer social processes that reinforce and exacerbate adolescent problem behavior. Reviewed literature focuses on the developmental impact of family of origin, detailing how coercive family dynamics negatively impact social skills development. Consideration is then given to the difficulties children from coercive families have with school transitions. Reviewed research suggests that children who remain reliant on coercive interpersonal processes can commonly be directed by both punishments and interventions towards delinquent peer clustering, inadvertently creating environments that reinforce and exacerbate pre-delinquent social dynamics. Focus is then turned to the unique social and reinforcement dynamics inherent in these delinquent peer groups, identifying language and verbal dynamics as being a special risk factors and predictors of later problem behavior. This review, although necessarily limited in scope, argues that for the highest risk adolescents, delinquent talk and the behavioral reinforcement that it generates within the delinquent peer group is a powerful primer for later delinquent action. I also argue that high-risk adolescents' verbal behaviors are both visible and viable targets for intervention efforts.