In recent years there have been a number of developments in the assessment of psychopathy in children and adolescents using interview-based methods or self-report screening measures. To date, much of the literature focuses on concerns about the stability of the construct and the reliability/validity of current assessment tools. Some researchers (e.g., Frick, 2002, Frick et al., 2003 and Lynam, 2002) argue that psychopathy is a relatively stable construct with similar external correlates across cultures and across the lifespan. Others (e.g., Edens et al., 2001, Seagrave and Grisso, 2002, Spain et al., 2004 and Vincent and Hart, 2002) suggest that psychopathy scores may be inflated in adolescence as sensation seeking and impulsivity are highest at this lifestage.
There has been a growth in the number of studies examining the file/interview-based Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003); many of which suggest evidence of reasonable reliability and validity (Campbell et al., 2004, Catchpole and Gretton, 2003, Corrado et al., 2004, Dolan and Rennie, 2006, Gretton et al., 2003, Gretton et al., 2001, Kosson et al., 2002, Murrie et al., 2004, Skeem and Cauffman, 2003 and Spain et al., 2004).
By contrast, there have also been important advances in the development of self-report measures of juvenile psychopathy yet there are relatively few studies reporting on their relationship to the PCL: YV in a range of juvenile samples. Examples of published self-report measures include the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed, Kerr, Stattin, & Levander, 2002), the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Caputo et al., 1999 and Frick and Hare, 2001), the Child Psychopathy Scale (CPS; Lynam, 1997), the Psychopathy Content Scale on the Millon Adolescent Inventory (MACI; Millon, 1993) and the Survey of Attitudes and Life Experiences (SALE; Rogers, Vitacco, Cruise, Sewell, & Neuman, 2002). Available studies in both adult and juvenile samples tend to suggest that there are low to moderate correlations between the self-report APSD and the PCL: YV (e.g., Lee et al., 2003, Murrie and Cornell, 2002 and Spain et al., 2004). There are few published studies on the relationship between the PCL: YV and other self-report measures although Skeem and Cauffman (2003) in the US focus on the YPI in incarcerated offenders. We have previously reported on the reliability and predictive validity of the PCL: YV for short term (3 months) infractions (Dolan & Rennie, 2006). This study tests the hypothesis that the YPI and PCL: YV measures assess overlapping constructs and that both measures show reasonable predictive validity for institutional infractions at 12 months follow-up post baseline assessment.
