An examination of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) among male adolescent offenders: An item response theory analysis.

Abstract

This study examined the applicability of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) among a large sample of serious offending adolescent males. Adopting an item response theory approach, item properties of the PCL:YV were examined using the generalized partial credit model. Results showed that need for stimulation, "irresponsibility," and callous & unemotional were sensitive to changes in respondents' varying psychopathy levels, whereas lack of realistic, long-term goals; superficial charm; and revocation of conditional release were less so (quoted PCL:YV item published with permission by Multi-Health Systems, Inc.; see full permissions statement in footnote 1 in the article; other items are paraphrased). Substantial differential item functioning was also found in 15 of the 20 PCL:YV items among Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic offending boys, indicating that item functioning was not invariant across race/ethnicity. Questions remain regarding whether the construct of psychopathy as assessed with the PCL:YV is equivalent across adolescents in general and across different race/ethnic groups in particular.

Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version psychometric properties in an Item Response Theory polytomous model

“…Some of the items in this study with higher discrimination parameters also presented good parameters in the study by Tsang et al (2014), such as "Callous/Lack of Empathy" and "Lack of Remorse/ Guilt", suggesting that these attributes are good indicators for differentiating between different levels of psychopathy traits. Similarly, items such as "Need for Stimulation" also proved to be poorly discriminating in other studies (Tsang et al, 2015(Tsang et al, , 2014, suggesting that this is a more universal feature of adolescence and therefore less informative for the purpose of the PCL: YV. Other items also presented more inconsistent discriminations in these multiple studies, such as, for example, the item "Shallow emotions".…”

“…Choosing not to consider the hypothesis of items with the same discrimination (the case of Rasch models), one has to choose between two polytomic models: the Generalized Partial Credit Model (GPCM) (Masters, 1982;Muraki, 1992) or the Graded Response Model (GRM) (Samejima, 1968). According to Tsang, Piquero, and Cauffman (2014), although appropriate for categorical responses, GRM assumes that the likelihood of responding to a higher category increases as the latent trait increases.…”

“…In polytomic items, if the probabilities do not increase along with the latent trait, at least one response category will never be the most likely (for any point on the θ scale; Andrich, 1988). The assumption of ordered categories made by the GRM implies that this model is unable to detect these "disorganized thresholds" (Tsang et al, 2014). The GPCM, while making the same assumption, does not force the thresholds to be ordered.…”

Troubled or Traumatized Youth? The Relations Between Psychopathy, Violence Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Antisocial Behavior Among Juvenile Offenders

“…Two factor scores assessing interpersonal/affective features (F1: sum of eight items) and social deviance characteristics (F2: sum of nine items) are also available. Excellent inter-rater reliability (ICC = .91) was reported during training on the PCL:YV (Tsang, Piquero, & Cauffman, 2014). …”

Psychopathic features across development: Assessing longitudinal invariance among Caucasian and African American youths

“…In particular, research comparing African American and Caucasian samples has shown modest to substantial differences in item slope and threshold estimates (Cooke & Michie, 2001;Tsang, Piquero, & Cauffman, 2014) and differences in underlying factor structures of psychopathy have been reported as well (Kosson, Smith, & Newman, 1990;Sullivan & Kosson, 2006). For example, Tsang et al (2014) found differential item functioning of estimated thresholds in 10 of the 20 PCL:YV items among Caucasian and African American boys, and further noted four items that were more sensitive to change (i.e., had larger estimated slopes) for Caucasian compared to African American participants. In addition, it is important to point out that the overwhelming majority of this work has focused on adult correctional and forensic psychiatric samples, using PCL based measures.…”