Effects of the EQUIP programme on the moral judgement, cognitive distortions, and social skills of juvenile delinquents CORALIJN N. NAS, DANIEL BRUGMAN, & WILLEM KOOPS Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Abstract A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test study was carried out to investigate the effects of the EQUIP programme on moral judgement, social skills, cognitive distortions and social information processing of juvenile delinquents. The programme is designed to equip antisocial youth to think and act responsibly, and is a combination of Positive Peer Culture (PPC) and the teaching of helping skills. Participants were recruited from three comparable high-security correctional facilities for convicted boys between the ages of 12 and 18 years. One of these facilities implemented the EQUIP programme (n  /31); the other two facilities provided the control group (n  /25). Analysis of covariance on the post-test scores with the pre-test scores as the covariate showed a greater reduction of cognitive distortions in general for the EQUIP group when compared with the control group. No differences were found on moral judgement, social skills and social information processing. However, a few aspects of social information processing showed modest effect sizes in favour of the experimental group. It is concluded that to strengthen the effects of EQUIP a more intensive treatment is recommended. Future research on EQUIP should include more participants and investigate the impact of the programme on different types of antisocial youths. Keywords: Peer intervention, EQUIP, moral judgement, cognitive distortions, delinquency, adolescents Introduction One of the main goals of incarcerating youth offenders is a reduction in antisocial behaviour, and several interventions have been developed to realize this aim. One such intervention is the EQUIP programme, which is intended to encourage and equip youth to think and act responsibly using a peer-helping approach (Gibbs, Potter, & Goldstein, 1995). The EQUIP programme appears to be quite promising for two reasons. First, EQUIP is a multi-component helping skills programme, and these helping skills are practised in a peer group approach. Second, the results of a study using a preliminary version of the EQUIP programme have shown the programme to have great potential in reducing recidivism (Leeman, Gibbs, & Fuller, 1993). The peer group intervention part of the EQUIP training programme is based on the Positive Peer Culture (PPC) model (Vorrath & Brendtro, 1985), which was developed when it became clear that peer pressure was more influential than treatment by group workers in Correspondence: C. N. Nas, Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Utrecht, PO Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: c.n.nas@fss.uu.nl ISSN 1068-316X print/ISSN 1477-2744 online # 2005 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10683160500255703 Psychology, Crime & Law, December 2005; 11(4): 421  /434