title: The cross-cultural generalizability of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth version for adjudicated indigenous youth.
abstract: There is a paucity of Indigenous-specific research examining the reliability and validity of assessment tools routinely utilized within the justice system. Evaluating the cross-cultural reliability and validity of such tools is important for establishing generalizability as part of ethical practices; this is particularly important to address within Canada's Indigenous youth population because of longstanding effects of colonization, structural adversities, and overrepresentation in the youth justice system and the possible long-term impact of improper assessment on adult outcomes. A step toward this aim was undertaken in the current study by comparing scale reliability, structural validity, measurement invariance, and predictive validity of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) across Indigenous (n = 137) and White (n = 312) adjudicated youth. Polychoric ordinal alpha values indicated that PCL:YV test score scale reliability was high for both Indigenous and White youth. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that a 3-factor and 4-factor model provided acceptable-to-good fit for the full sample, and an examination of configural, metric, and scalar measurement invariance illustrated that both factor structures fit the subsamples equally well. PCL:YV test scores were also moderately associated with measures of different offending outcomes and performed similarly across White and Indigenous participants. Overall, support was found for the use of the PCL:YV within Indigenous youth, including its use in conjunction with other risk factors and assessment tools to guide risk assessment decisions for this group. The importance of cross-cultural research and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: School of Criminology.
authors.forename: Evan C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5998-7896
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: McCuish
authors.affiliation: School of Criminology.
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Mathesius
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Laval University.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lussier
authors.affiliation: School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University.
authors.forename: Raymond R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Corrado
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002170:Canada; D057189:Checklist; D002648:Child; D057237:Criminals; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D054521:Cultural Competency; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult