Communicative competence and socioemotional development in adolescent male offenders

This dissertation consists of three articles dealing with the integration of communicative competence and socioemotional development in adolescent male offenders. Thirty African American teens (13-17) from inner-city neighborhoods were interviewed. Fifteen of these boys were first-time offenders, having committed only property crimes; the other fifteen were repeat and violent offenders. The purpose of the study was to examine the way in which these adolescents communicate with an adult from a different racial and social class and relate that to a measure of their socioemotional development.;The first article discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the study. Bringing together literature from the fields of developmental psychology, juvenile justice, linguistics and cultural anthropology, its purpose is to combine existing theories and empirical findings to lay the foundation for the hypothesis that language is a critical mechanism for movement through socioemotional development levels. Based on Stromberg's (1993) model of volition, it is proposed that by learning a canonical language the juvenile delinquent could explain his world both to himself and others and this would engender a developmental shift.;The second article hypothesizes that there is a relationship between communicative competence and juvenile delinquency, and that more serious juvenile delinquents, those who have committed repeat and violent offenses, will have more difficulty communicating competently than those adolescents of a similar age who have only committed property crimes for a first time. The results support this hypothesis, showing that repeat offenders tend not to repair their speech nor do they use colloquial speech as often as first-time offenders. These are both ways in which speakers communicate interpersonal involvement with their listeners.;The third article hypothesizes a relationship between communicative competence and socioemotional development. It supposes that the ability to take responsibility for emotions and to describe feelings using emotions (indicators of a more complex socioemotional development level) is associated with the ability to communicate competently. Among other relationships, it was found that those adolescents who use more colloquial language and repair their speech were more likely to take responsibility for their emotions and less likely to describe them using actions. Case studies included.