Year: 2005
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Psychopathy is a robust predictor of violence and recidivism in criminal populations.Interest in the developmental aspects of psychopathy is increasing, with a particular emphasis on early intervention.The Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2004a) is considered to be the gold standard for assessing psychopathic personality in youth, but it is impractical for use as a first line assessment.Currently, three potential youth psychopathic trait screeners exist: the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD: Frick & Hare, 2002) staff-report (S-APSD), the Antisocial Process Screening Device -Youth Self Report (APSD-Y) and the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed, Kerr, Stattin, & Levander, 2002).Few data exist regarding the effectiveness of any as a screener.The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of the S-APSD, APSD-Y and YPI as screening instruments for psychopathic traits in adolescents.Participants were 100 adjudicated youths, aged 14-17 years.The diagnostic efficiency of the S-APSD, APSD-Y and YPI was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves (Kraemer, 1992;McFall & Treat, 1999;Swets, Dawes, & Monahan, 2000).A comparison of diagnostic efficiencies revealed the APSD-Y to be the superior measure.This was confirmed by logistic regression.Optimal decision thresholds were computed using Kraemer's (1992) Q-ROC procedure.In the interest of generalizability, multi-level likelihood ratios and costworthiness analyses are presented for various base rates.Findings indicate that if the APSD-Y is to be used at all, it is most useful at its extreme scores.
Author: Kristen Wiens Green
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2287150344