Attitudes and Adjustment of Male Offenders (Michigan).

This study focused on the extent to which structural and attribution variables accounted for the post-release adjustment of offenders who had been participants in a pre-employment training program. The structural variables were: Age, Marital Status, Education, Substance Abuse, Property Related Crime, Person Related Crimes and Length of Sentence. Brickman's (1980) orientations were used to define four general sets of attitudes regarding subjects' sense of social responsibility: Moral, Compensatory, Enlightenment, and Medical. The sample consisted of 128 male inmates from Michigan State Prisons who were released to community corrections centers in Metro-Detroit between January and June of 1982. Content analyses of the subjects' corrections files were done and , in addition, interviews were held with individuals immediately following training and three and six months after release from prison. The interviews were used to gather data about the nature of the prison to society transition problems faced by the men and to determine their attribution orientations at the three points in time. One-way analysis of variance (anova) and stepwise multiple regression were conducted to determine the predictive association between socio-demographic variables (both corrections and non-corrections related), attribution orientations, and employment and corrections status at initial interviewing and three- and six-month follow-ups. The overall conclusions of the study were: (a) attribution orientations were unstable; (b) the mediating influence of structural variables was stronger than that of attribution variables; and (c) there was little or no relationship between the structural variables and attribution models. Findings from this study may be used to formulate participant selection criteria so that offenders who might benefit most from pre-employment training programs are given highest priority in admissions. It should also enhance educators underst and ing of particular sources of learner resistance to certain kinds of instruction or content areasPhDAdult educationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160699/1/8520948.pd