ALIENATION AND SELF-REPORTED DEVIANCE AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

The Purpose. The purpose of the study was to quantitatively explore the following questions: (1) What is the scope and nature of alienation and deviance among college students? (2) Are there significant differences in the alienation and deviance scores by sex, age, income, class, major, grade point average, residence, or peer group affiliation? (3) Are the dimensions of isolation, powerlessness, anomie, total alienation, meaninglessness, and self-estrangement significantly related? (4) Are the dimensions of substance use, antisocial behavior, economic deviance, property damage, and cheating on examinations significantly related? (5) Are there any significant relationships between alienation and self-reported deviance? Do these relationships vary among subgroups? The Procedure. Data were collected on a convenience sample of 113 college students. The survey instrument was comprised of Dean\u27s alienation scale, a modified version of Crumbaugh\u27s purpose-in-life-test, a sense of reality test, and 21 items from Canter\u27s SRD checklist. The deviance items were later classified according to substance use, antisocial behavior, economic deviance, property damage, cheating on examinations, and total deviance. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for computerized statistical analysis. The Findings. The descriptive findings revealed a fairly persistent pattern of alienation and deviance. Although the scores were not startlingly high, they nevertheless seemed fairly substantial considering the population. A number of significant differences were found when the mean scores were compared by subgroups. For example, males had a higher mean total deviance score than females, and students without a peer group had a higher mean isolation score than students with a peer group. All of the intercorrelations for self-reported deviance were significant as were the intercorrelations for alienation, with the exception of a single nonsignificant finding. Numerous significant correlations were found between alienation and self-reported deviance, including a small positive relationship between total deviance and total alienation. Furthermore, differential correlation analysis found alienation to be more significantly related to self-reported deviance among some subgroups rather than others