Effects on juvenile self-esteem per type of detention facility and programming

In an effort to provide the best possible services to the juveniles involved in the juvenile justice system, the current study examined the ability of different facilities, such as juvenile halls and correctional camps, and treatment receipt to effect significant change in the level of self-esteem in their participants. Self-esteem scores from two instruments, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Self-Esteem Index (SEI), were used to compare the experiences of 40 juveniles in two central California juvenile halls to 40 juveniles of two central California military-style correctional camps after they had served 3 to 6 months of their total sentence. The two self-esteem instruments were also correlated to one another. While the SEI yielded significantly higher self-esteem scores for participants incarcerated in correctional camps than participants incarcerated in juvenile halls, it did not yield significantly different scores between groups as a function of county size or treatment receipt. The RSES did not yield significantly different self-esteem scores between the groups as a function of facility type, facility size, or treatment receipt. Finally, the two instruments were found to be strongly correlated to one another.