an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

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male youth. Using a coding system similar to the one developed by Cornell et al. (1996), Murrie and colleagues found that PCL:YV total scores were correlated (r = .36) with instrumental aggression. Likewise, Kruh and colleagues established that male young adults (M age = 18.37 years) who committed unprovoked violence had higher psychopathy scores as measured by the Antisocial Process Screening Device (Frick & Hare, 2001) compared to individuals who committed aggressive acts in response to provocation. The only study in the female youth offender literature to examine instrumental aggression and its association with psychopathy was conducted recently by Cook and colleagues. Utilizing a small (n = 41) female violent offender sample, youth scoring high on the PCL:YV did not differ from low-scoring female offenders in their use of proactive (instrumental) violence. When examining male youth (n = 47), however, these researchers found that offenders scoring high on the PCL:YV did display higher rates of proactive violence. Recently, researchers have begun to examine factor-level relationships with instrumental violence among male youth (Carpenter, 2010; Flight & Forth, 2007; Vitacco et al., 2006). Among their high PCL:YV scoring (M = 31.26, SD = 5.17) male sample, Vitacco and colleagues demonstrated that the four-facet model of the PCL:YV accounted for 20% of the variance in instrumental aggression whereas the three-factor model and two-factor models accounted for 8% and 5% of the variance in instrumental aggression, respectively. Using structural equation modeling to examine how the individual facets were related to instrumental aggression, these researchers found that when using a four-facet model, the interpersonal facet was able to positively predict the use of instrumental aggression, and the antisocial facet was inversely predictive of 21
instrumental aggression. However, when the antisocial facet was removed (i.e., three- factor model was used), the interpersonal facet no longer predicted instrumental aggression and only the lifestyle factor was positively related to instrumental aggression. The authors interpreted this finding as suggesting that the antisocial facet was of central importance in the underlying factor structure of psychopathy since the other psychopathy factors took on greater strength when the antisocial factor was included in the model. Flight and Forth’s (2007) investigation of the relationships among psychopathy and instrumental violence in young offenders has been equally revealing. Among a small sample of 51 male young offenders they found that psychopathic youth were using a combination of instrumental and reactive violence. However, similar to Woodworth and Porter’s (2002) study with adult offenders, youth who were classified as instrumentally violent scored higher on psychopathy. In addition, consistent with the adult literature, Facet 1 (interpersonal) and Facet 2 (affective) scores on the PCL:YV were more strongly related to instrumental violence than Facet 3 (lifestyle) and Facet 4 (behavioural) scores. Once again, the results of this study suggest that male youth with a higher level of psychopathic traits are more likely to use instrumental violence in the commission of violent crimes than nonpsychopathic youth. The use of instrumental violence among male youth who possess greater levels of psychopathic traits has also been demonstrated among youth responsible for the most severe of criminal acts (i.e., homicide). For instance, among an almost exclusively male homicide offender sample in British Columbia, Agar (2009) found that increases in total PCL:YV scores were associated with increases in the likelihood of instrumentality. 22
Page 1 and 2: AN EXAMINATION OF THE FACTOR STRUCT
Page 3 and 4: Preface Ethics approval for this re
Page 5 and 6: 3 Results .........................
Page 7 and 8: List of Tables Table 1 Confirmatory
Page 9 and 10: Acknowledgements I owe my deepest g
Page 11 and 12: To my family and friends, Thank you
Page 13 and 14: among female youth populations, the
Page 15 and 16: Third, it has been suggested that t
Page 17 and 18: only a small proportion of conduct-
Page 19 and 20: irresponsible, and antisocial tende
Page 21 and 22: A long line of research has demonst
Page 23 and 24: females. When a model is considered
Page 25 and 26: to do with whether the measure is w
Page 27 and 28: Understanding the factor structure
Page 29 and 30: (Leschied et al., 2001; Moretti, Ca
Page 31: psychopathic offenders were signifi
Page 35 and 36: Given the relationships between the
Page 37 and 38: associated with self-report will be
Page 39 and 40: 1.4.1 Hypotheses The current thesis
Page 41 and 42: ecords, school records, medical rec
Page 43 and 44: 2.2.3 Instrumental-Reactive Coding
Page 45 and 46: eceiving services from YFPS. Althou
Page 47 and 48: 3 Results 3.1 Coding Reliability In
Page 49 and 50: This was followed by acquaintance v
Page 51 and 52: Figure 2. Percentage of cases by se
Page 53 and 54: index that adjusts for model comple
Page 55 and 56: Item 1 Item 2 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6
Page 57 and 58: (1-19), 38.7% scored in the moderat
Page 59 and 60: offences, 28.6% were for revenge or
Page 61 and 62: association between the dichotomous
Page 63 and 64: from the original dataset. In other
Page 65 and 66: in instrumental aggression was acco
Page 67 and 68: etween the dichotomous psychopathy
Page 69 and 70: psychopath based on a cut score of
Page 71 and 72: the three-factor model was unable t
Page 73 and 74: sample since violent offenders are
Page 75 and 76: who also concluded that antisocial
Page 77 and 78: they are less likely to use reactiv
Page 79 and 80: more strongly related to instrument
Page 81 and 82: Pickard, 2007; Barry, Pickard, & An
Page 83 and 84:
measure of psychopathy may be limit
Page 85 and 86:
Further, based on the relatively lo
Page 87 and 88:
score. Although this is a valid mea
Page 89 and 90:
Having access to a large sample, we
Page 91 and 92:
demonstrated, the utility of differ
Page 93 and 94:
malleable youth sample may facilita
Page 95 and 96:
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: I
Page 97 and 98:
Gender differences in mental health
Page 99 and 100:
Edens, J. F., Skeem, J. L., Cruise,
Page 101 and 102:
Frick, P. J., Cornell, A. H., Barry
Page 103 and 104:
Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S. (2006
Page 105 and 106:
Jones, S., Cauffman, E., Miller, J.
Page 107 and 108:
Lynam, D. R. (1996). Early identifi
Page 109 and 110:
Murrie, D. C., Cornell, D. G., Kapl
Page 111 and 112:
of the official and self-reported h
Page 113 and 114:
Salekin, R. T., Rogers, R., & Sewel
Page 115 and 116:
Stockdale, K. C., Olver, M. E., Won
Page 117 and 118:
Vitale, J. E., & Newman, J. P. (200
Page 119 and 120:
Xie, H., Cairns, R. B., & Cairns, B
Page 121 and 122:
Appendix B: Factor Models Table A1
Page 123 and 124:
112
Page 125 and 126:
Appendix E: Coding Scheme and Guide
Page 127 and 128:
PART A: OFFENCE CHARACTERISTICS AND
Page 129 and 130:
PART C: WOODWORTH & PORTER`S INSTRU
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