Despite the wealth of research on psychopathy in adulthood, little is known about the
developmental antecedents of the disorder. The purpose of the present investigation was
to examine developmental risk factors to psychopathy in two adolescent offender
populations. In Study 1, subjects were 233 adolescent sexual offenders who had
participated in a sex-offender treatment program between 1985 and 1992. Archival data
were used to retrospectively complete the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version
(PCL:YV) and to code family background, individual, demographic, and criminological
variables. PCL:YV scores were associated with physical abuse, parental social deviance,
and adolescent Hyperactivity-Impulsivity-Attention (HIA) problems. In addition,
relationships between PCL:YV scores and demographic and criminological variables
were similar to those found in adult populations. In Study 2, mothers of 74 adolescent
offenders completed questionnaires related to parenting strategies, physical abuse,
maternal psychopathy, and child characteristics. The PCL:YV was completed using file
information. PCL:YV scores were associated with physical abuse by father, maternal
psychopathy, ineffective parenting strategies, and HIA. Results also indicated that the
Psychopathy Screening Device, a measure of psychopathy in children, showed low
concurrent validity with the PCL:YV. It was concluded that the investigation of risk
factors is important to both our understanding of psychopathy and to early identification
and treatment of those at risk for the disorder.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9575 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | McBride, Michelle L. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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