Abstract: | The hypothesis tested in this pilot study is that the deviant behavior of adolescents referred by juvenile courts to a social agency for group care is related to an anomic situation in the adolescent's previous history rather than to a delinquent syndrome of behavior. A small sample of court-committed adolescent girls was tested by a specially designed Anomic Pressure Rating Scale and compared to a control group. Significant differences between the two groups were found in all categories of the scale, confirming the hypothesis. |