The comparison of antisocial and prosocial children on multicriterion measures at summer camp

Eighty-four prosocial children and 14 children defined as antisocial according to various diagnostic measures utilized by the professional therapeutic community were compared as to incidences of prosocial, nonsocial, and antisocial behaviors exhibited at a summer camp. Additionally, the children and their group counselors completed various inventories posited to measure antisocial behavior. A time-sampling procedure used to secure behavioral measurements on the children each day, when possible, during 60-minute intervals for a 5-week period, revealed no significant differences on prosocial,nonsocial, and antisocial behavior. Self inventories provided data contradictory to the behavioral data. The results of the study are discussed in terms of the difficulties involved in operationalizing the concept of antisocial behavior and the possibility that the antisocial children may have been labeled.