Assessing invariance across sex and race/ethnicity in measures of youth psychopathic characteristics.
The aim of this study was to assess the measurement invariance of 2 commonly used measures of youth psychopathic characteristics across sex and racial/ethnic groups. Among a community sample of Hispanic and Black adolescents (N = 355; 50.5% female; mean age = 15.09) and their parents, this study tested the configural and metric invariance of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Fitzpatrick, & Kiehl, 1995) and the parent-report version of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (Frick, 2004). Preliminary analyses indicated that the adolescents in the present study reported similar rates of psychopathic characteristics as those reported by other studies of adolescents and young adults. Results of the multigroup invariance analyses indicated that these measures are invariant across sex and between Hispanic and Black youth. In addition, further analyses assessing associations between these measures and a number of behavioral and emotional characteristics indicated that scores on the LSRP Scale and Callous-Unemotional Traits demonstrate good convergent and discriminant validity with few differences by sex or race/ethnicity. To date, research on psychopathy has focused predominantly on samples of White males. Therefore, it is important that research examines the equivalence of measures of psychopathic characteristics across different populations, so that accurate assessments can be made to inform intervention and treatment efforts.
Department of Psychology, Fordham University.
Jacqueline M
JM
Horan
Department of Psychology, Fordham University.
Joshua L
JL
Brown
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Stephanie M
SM
Jones
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University.
J Lawrence
JL
Aber
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000367:Age Factors; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D001213:Asian; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D044465:White People / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*