Short-Term Stability of Psychopathic Traits in Adolescent Offenders

Abstract

There is considerable debate about the assessment of psychopathic traits in adolescence due in part to questions regarding the stability of traits. We investigated the 6-month stability of psychopathic traits in a sample of 83 male adolescent offenders using an augmented protocol for the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version and the self-report Antisocial Process Screening Device. Findings suggested moderate to high stability of psychopathic traits, as indexed by total scores, and low to moderate stability of psychopathic traits at the factor level. The interpersonal and behavioral traits demonstrated greater stability relative to the affective traits, and stability varied by developmental stage, with lower stability in early adolescence. Implications for understanding the developmental expression of psychopathic traits in adolescence, as well as for clinical-forensic practice, are discussed.

Predicting persistence and desistence of recidivism in youth offenders : the role of risk and protective factors in criminal offending

“…In summary, the research literature has illustrated that stability in psychopathic traits, as it relates to youth, is consistent with research on adults indicating that psychopathic traits are relatively stable across the adolescent years (Forth & Book, 2007, Frick et al, 2003Lee et al, 2009). Researchers have supported that youth who exhibit early signs of psychopathic traits, may in turn, develop serious and persistent antisocial behaviour across their lifespan (Loney et al, 2007).…”

“…Given that some researchers have argued that adolescence is a time of tremendous developmental change (Edens et al, 2001), the need to determine whether certain traits are normative or reflective of an underlying immutable personality, researchers have begun to study the stability of psychopathic traits in youth. Lee, Klaver, Hart, Moretti, and Douglas (2009) explored this with a sample of 83 male, adolescent offenders. Lee and colleagues found a moderate stability of psychopathic traits across six months when both clinical (PCL:YV) and self-report measures (APSD) were utilized.…”

Callous–unemotional traits as a cross-disorders construct

“…1 up to 53 years) [52, 115, 130–139]. Only a short-term study found stability to be low [140]. However, findings are comparable when no correction for conduct problems was made [110, 115, 128] and when a correction was made [119–121, 123, 126, 127], indicating the presence of CU traits quite robustly predicting a poorer outcome over and above the presence of conduct problems.…”

Machine learning of structural magnetic resonance imaging predicts psychopathic traits in adolescent offenders

“…Psychopathic traits, known as callous and unemotional traits and conduct disordered traits (CU/CD) in youth, is most commonly assessed in juvenile forensic populations using the Hare Psychopath Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV (Forth et al, 2003), a downward extension of the adult Hare PCL-R. Research has shown that the PCL-YV identifies youth at the highest risk of committing serious and violent crimes as adolescents and/or adults (Davidson et al, 2000; Hawkins et al, 1998; Hawkins et al, 2000). Psychopathic traits, at least at low to moderate levels, detected early in life often decrease naturally (Frick et al, 2003; Lee et al, 2009; Lynam et al, 2007). However, for a subsample of youth with elevated psychopathic traits, the disorder appears to remain stable across development (Blonigen et al, 2006; Frick et al, 2003; Lynam et al, 2007; Obradovic et al, 2007) and are referred to as being on the “life-course persistent” trajectory (Moffitt, 1993).…”