Nipping psychopathy in the bud: an examination of the convergent, predictive, and theoretical utility of the PCL-YV among adolescent girls.
Over the last decade rates of violence among adolescent girls have increased. Within high-risk contexts, urgent calls for assessment options have resulted in the extension of adult and male-based instruments to adolescent females in spite of the absence of strong empirical support. The current study evaluates the downward extension of psychopathy within a population of female juvenile offenders (N=125). The convergent and predictive validity of the Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL-YV) were evaluated within a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Results indicated that while a specific component of psychopathy, deficient affective experience, was related to aggression, the effect was negated once victimization experiences were entered into the models. In addition, PCL-YV scores were not predictive of future offending, while victimization experiences significantly increased the odds of re-offending. Implications for research, policy, and clinical practice are discussed.
Odgers
Candice L
CL
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada. codgers@sfu.ca
Reppucci
N Dickon
ND
Moretti
Marlene M
MM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019548:Crime Victims; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011329:Prisoners; D011599:Psychopathology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015144:Southeastern United States; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000639:trends