• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.14 no.1_spc
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• pp.299-317
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• 2008

The school drop-out among the youth has grown to become a serious social problem since about 2000 and calls for an attention to its seriousness. Therefore, this study reviewed the statitistical reports and the previous empirical findings on the school drop-out and integrated to establish a comprehensive understanding of this social phenomenon. The main concepts and terminologies on school drop-out, the current statistics, the possible causal factors and the usual trajectory the youth take after dropping-out of school were discussed to conceptualize the issue. Analyses indicated 12 characteristics of the students who dropped out of school. Those 12 characteristics were restructured according to the ecological conceptual model. The social instability and the financial crisis in the 1990's has eroded the stability of the primary environments of adolescents such as family and school. The family breakdowns from divorce and other reasons weakened psychological and financial support for adolescents. The diminished authority of teachers and school over students exposed conflicts between teacher and students, students' loss of purpose and interest in academic attainment. The adolescents showed emotional reponses like increased level of depression, helplessness, aggression, indicated cognitive reponses such as the loss of purpose and interest in studying, a heightened sense of uncertainty of the future, and behavioral responses like sexual acting out behaviors, and bullying. The unmet psychological needs of adolescents result in run-away and school drop-out behaviors, which in turn progress into juvenile delinquency as the society fails to provide adequate and appropriate guidance and interventions. The intervention strategies at the national level were proposed and the limitations of the study were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2000

Objective：This study was performed in order to develop a measuring instrument for assessing and predicting delinquent behavior of the adolescents in Korea. Methods：This study was methodological research for developing a questionnaire for measuring delinquent behavior. Through the relevant literature review and personal interview using open-ended question with 12 adolescents in schools, outpatient basis and the juvenile corrective institutions, the author developed a pre-questionnaire with 31 items for assessing delinquent behavior among delinquentprone adolescents. Statistical method employed were test-retest reliability and Cronbach's alpha coefficient for testing reliability and factor analysis for testing validity of this questionnaire, and t-test for mean difference between student adolescents and delinquent adolescents, using SAS program. Subject served for this study consisted of 2,177 adolescents including 1,206 students and 971 delinquent adolescents by proportional stratified random sampling method. Results：1) Three stable factors were emerged and these contributed 52.2% of the variance in the total score. All 31 items loaded above .40 on each factor. 2) Factor I was named as antisocial delinquent behavior(17 items), factor II was named as aggressive delinquent behavior(8 items), and factor III was named as psychopathic delinquent behavior(6 items). 3) Comparison of these 3 factors between student adolescents and delinquent adolescents showed that there was a significant difference in factor Ⅰ(t=-42.91(student), -41.71(delinquent), p=.0001), factor II(t=-34.10(student), -35.72(delinquent), p=.0001), factor III(t=-14.24(student), -14.26 (delinquent), p=.0000), and total score(t=37.02(student), -36.38(delinquent), p=.0001). 4) Internal consistency reliability was tested by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$. Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ was .952 for total 31 items and .950, .866 and .721 for each 3 factors related to delinquent behavior. Conclusions：The author confirmed that this scale can use for measuring delinquent behavior, and hope to make a contribution to screening test and prevention of juvenile delinquency in Korea.