Title
Dimensions of adolescent alienation
Abstract
A review of the psychological, sociological and
educational literature indicated that the various
conceptualizations of "alienation" could be fitted
into five tentative categories appearing to have considerable
overlap. An item pool developed to represent
these categories of alienation was screened by
expert review and pilot testing in the 9th grade and
then administered to 500 "normal" adolescents in
9th-grade classes in four diverse communities in
Minnesota: a rural area, a suburban area, and
working class and inner city areas of a large city.
Factor analysis identified three coherent dimensions
in student responses, which were labeled "Personal
Incapacity," "Cultural Estrangement," and
"Guidelessness." Simple cluster scores constructed
to represent these dimensions had internal-consistency
reliabilities of .80, .70, and .67 respectively.
Patterns of significant differences shown by analyses
of variance among groups defined by community
type, socio-economic status, ability, and sex,
compared well with hypothesized patterns; the few
exceptions were tenable. The scales provide concrete
measures of alienation that may enable more
meaningful investigation of its incidence, correlates,
and causes.
Identifiers
other: doi:10.1177/014662167700100208
Previously Published Citation
Mackey, James & Ahlgren, Andrew. (1977). Dimensions of adolescent alienation. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 219-232. doi:10.1177/014662167700100208
Suggested Citation
Mackey, James; Ahlgren, Andrew.
(1977).
Dimensions of adolescent alienation.
Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy,
https://hdl.handle.net/11299/98491.