Earliest School Recollections as a Diagnostic Device for Identifying Successfully or Unsuccessfully Mainstreamed Violent and Assaultive Youth

Abstract The researchers devised a system for classifying the earliest school recollections of violent and assaultive youth. To determine the validity of this system, judges classified 60 such students as successfully or unsuccessfully mainstreamed according to their earliest school recollection. Judges' classifications were compared with objective evaluations of the same students on the basis of their success or failure at being mainstreamed. The findings indicated that there was statistically significant agreement between judges' classifications of students and objective evaluations of students. This study represents the first attempt to utilize earliest school recollections as a diagnostic tool for identifying successfully or unsuccessfully mainstreamed violent and assaultive youth.