Female juvenile delinquents' pragmatic awareness of conversational interactions

Standardized testing has shown that juvenile delinquents have a high incide nce of communication problems; however, discourse analyses have failed to c onfirm pragmatic deficits. This study's purpose was to explore, using quali tative procedures, the pragmatic awareness of female juvenile delinquents c oncerning conversational interactions. The 45 participants engaged in small -group conversations about communication during multiple class periods. On- line field notes served as the data and were used to determine emerging pat terns of verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors. Identified themes in cluded (a) active listening; (b) body position; (c) eye contact, facial exp ressions, and gestures; (d) utterance types; (e) topics of conversation; (f ) politeness and honesty; and (g) conversational management. Results sugges ted that juvenile delinquents can state many conventions governing conversa tional interactions; however, some do not always display interactional beha viors consistent with their pragmatic awareness. Discrepancies about pragma tic awareness are discussed in terms of the underlying nature of communicat ion challenges in delinquent populations. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc.