an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

the relative recency of the PCL:YV’s development and the lack of studies that have
examined instrumental aggression among samples that have included females, these
analyses should assist researchers in furthering their understanding of adolescent, in
particular female, psychopathy and will better help inform our understanding of
motivation. Finally, my third objective was to examine how the best-fitting of the three
primary PCL:YV factor models was related to instrumental aggression.
The design of the present study involves a number of methodological
considerations, such as the inclusion of one of the largest samples of adolescent female
offenders that the author is aware of from the published literature. This is the first North
American study to simultaneously examine all three of the primary factor models among
female adolescent offenders. The large size of this sample allows for rigorous
examination of psychopathy and instrumental aggression among females with a history
of violence; no other study that has specifically tested the relationship between
psychopathy and instrumental aggression, among either male or female youth
offenders, has contained a sample of this size. In fact, the one female study to examine
this relationship included a sample of only 41 female youth. Further, the current study
utilized mixed motive categories to assess instrumentality, and all instrumentality ratings
were based on official file information rather than offender self-reports. Finally, through
the inclusion of external correlates such as aggression in psychopathy research, we will
be able to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the construct of psychopathy.
Specifically, we will be able to identify which psychopathic traits in particular may
influence the motivations for violence perpetrated by female youth.
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