THE PERSONALITIES OF PREDELINQUENT BOYS.

This article presents a study which examined the personalities of predelinquent boys. The data in this study was a project in which Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered to 88.5 percent of the ninth grade school children of Minneapolis. The data presented by the study are not sufficient nor adequate to make any extensive discussion of the origin of delinquency-proneness and of other personality characteristics. It is possible that the personality traits indicated by the MMPI variable were acquired in the process of ontological development. It is also possible that some or part of the potential for exhibiting delinquent behavior came from genetic factors operating in an environment that permitted a development of such behavior. The MMPI provides some evidence that part of these stress patterns could be juvenile forms of adult maladjustment. The collected data indicate that any community seriously interested in preventing delinquency should have several kinds of programs rather that concentrating upon a single program. Boys should, by guidance and inclination, be permitted to choose an appropriate program. The data indicate that the possibility that a program of controlled revolt and even danger might help some boys, but others need something very different