Strength Training and Leisure Counseling as Treatments for Institutionalized Juvenile Delinquents

Abstract

A systematic strength training and structured leisure counseling program was investigated to determine the effects on self-esteem, leisure attitudes, leisure behaviors, and muscular fitness of institutionalized juvenile delinquents. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: strength training and leisure counseling (STLC), strength training and informal discussion (STD), or a no-treatment control group (NT). The experimental groups met 3 times a week, 90 minutes per session for 7 weeks. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that there were no significant differences among the three groups on measures of self-esteem, leisure attitudes, or leisure behaviors. Analysis of variance with repeated measures indicated that there were no significant differences between the STLC and STD groups on muscular fitness, although both had significant pre- to posttest gains. The STLC and STD groups rated their treatments high on an attitude toward treatment measure, but neither group was significantly more positive about it than the other.