The predicative ability of HABGT scales for a male delinquent population

The Adience-Abience and the Psychopathology Scales of the HABGT were applied under pretreatment and posttreatment conditions to 120 13-15-year-old male delinquents. Comparison with other personality variables, prediction of recidivism, and analysis of mean scores on the two scales with the means of normal and disturbed children of comparable age were attempted. The delinquent group was more ambient than normal children and was significantly higher in psychopathology than either normals or disturbed children. Significant correlations were obtained between Adience-Abience and Psychopathology and recidivism, although neither scale alone, nor both scales in combination, was high enough in prediction to warrant their use for individual predictive purposes. However, their utility in such programs as well as their construct validity were demonstrated.