Identifying adolescent offenders at risk for institutional misconduct: An examination of self-report and laboratory-based measures of juvenile psychopathy

Drew J Miller, Purdue University

Abstract

Research suggests individuals with psychopathic traits possess several deficits that influence their tendencies to engage in antisocial behavior. However, few studies have examined whether youth with psychopathic traits possess the same deficits as their adult counterparts or whether specific deficits predict institutional misconduct in youth. The current study examined relations between three self-report measures of juvenile psychopathy (CPS, YPI, and FFM psychopathy prototype) and three laboratory tasks (Balloon Analog Risk Task-Youth Version, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task-Computerized Version, and the Emotional Expression Multimorph Task) thought to capture psychopathic deficits. Additionally, these measures were compared as predictors of several forms of institutional misconduct. One-hundred twenty incarcerated juveniles completed measures on a laptop computer and experimenters tabulated reports of institutional misconduct via comprehensive chart review. Results indicated that self-report measures and laboratory tasks generally converged poorly and that these measures only modestly predicted institutional misconduct. Lastly, self-report measures and laboratory tasks failed to provide significant increments in variance over demographic variables and achievement scores. Thus, the laboratory tasks utilized in this study may not be particularly good measures of youth psychopathy, but predicted institutional misconduct just as well as self-report measures. The relatively weak prediction of institutional misconduct suggests clinicians should explore other factors (in addition to psychopathy) when predicting institutional misconduct.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Lynam, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Developmental psychology|Experimental psychology|Personality psychology

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