The social background scale was one of three scales constructed by the Gluecks. The five factors included in the scale were the discipline of the boy by the father, the supervision of the boy by the mother, the father's affection for the boy, the mother's affection for the boy, and family cohesiveness. The subjects consisted of groups of 30 youths aged 10 to 15 years who were living either in a reception home; a slum on the outskirts of a city; or a family in which the husband, wife, and children lived under a single roof and in which there was no gross family pathology. All the youths living in the reception home, 60 percent of those in the slum, and 24 percent of those in normal families had social backgrounds which were prone to delinquency. Early childhood neuroticism existed in 77 percent of the reception home group, 36 percent of the slum group, and 10 percent of the normal family group. Thus, early childhood neuroticism plays a vital role in the formation of delinquency. However, the degree of consanguinity of the parents was not related to delinquency formation. The reception home group came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than the slum group, which in turn was of lower socioeconomic status than the normal group. Thus, the Glueck social prediction scale is applicable to the Indian population.