an examination of the factor structure of the psychopathy checklist

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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. 27
1.4.1 Hypotheses The current thesis had three specific hypotheses. First, based on the relatively limited existing information on the factor structure of female adult (Jackson et al., 2002; Warren et al., 2003; Weizmann-Henelius et al., 2010) and female youth (i.e., Jones et al., 2006; Sevecke et al., 2009) psychopathy, I predicted that Cooke and Michie’s (2001) three-factor model would provide the best fit of the current sample’s female youth data. My second prediction was that female psychopaths would differ from nonpsychopaths in terms of the type of violence (instrumental versus reactive) they commit. Based on previous research among adult (e.g., Woodworth & Porter, 2002) and youth (e.g., Agar, 2010, Carpenter, 2010; Flight & Forth, 2007) samples composed almost exclusively of males, female youths scoring high on the PCL:YV were expected to also use more instrumental violence in their overall commission of violent offences than youths scoring low on the PCL:YV. I believed that these results would be particularly pronounced in youth who have scored high on the interpersonal and affective facets of psychopathy. Third, despite my belief that the three-factor model would provide the best fit among this sample of female adolescents, following from research by Vitacco et al. (2006), I predicted that the four-facet model would account for more variance in instrumental aggression as compared to the three-factor model. 28
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 and 32: psychopathic offenders were signifi
Page 33 and 34: instrumental aggression. However, w
Page 35 and 36: Given the relationships between the
Page 37: associated with self-report will be
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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