Perceived Multiple Emotional Self-concepts in Groups of Juvenile Delinquents and Nondelinquents

Representative sample of 74 institutionalized juvenile male and female delinquents in Estonia were administered a 16 item self-report questionnaire to measure emotions in the actual, ideal and social selves based on Plutchik's multidimensional model of emotions. Mean ratings of three aspects of emotional self-concept were compared with those of matched comparison group of 148 nondelinquent youth. The hypothesis that delinquents would manifest more negative emotional characteristics of multidimensional selves than nondelinquent subgroup was supported with respect to higher scores on nine negative (aggressiveness, anger, contempt, disappointment, disgust, fear, remorse, sadness, submission) and low scores on two positive (joy, optimism) emotions.