The self-concept of societally vulnerable and delinquent boys within the context of school and leisure activities.

The central question in this article is: "Have delinquent and non-delinquent boys different self-concepts?" The idea is that it is necessary to distinguish between different domains that are relevant to adolescent boys, that is school and leisure time, and between conventional and non-conventional characteristics. An instrument was constructed to measure the school/conventional orientated and leisure/non-conventional orientated self-concept. The research group consisted of 219 adolescent boys. Girls were not included. The results show that most delinquent boys have a leisure/non-conventional orientated self-concept, whilst most non-delinquents, as well as most boys who are not involved in the peer group, have a school/conventional orientated self-concept. The implications of the research and suggestions for other research are discussed. Copyright 1997 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.