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Youth with psychopathy features are not a discrete class: a taxometric analysis
Author(s) -
Murrie Daniel C.,
Marcus David K.,
Douglas Kevin S.,
Lee Zina,
Salekin Randall T.,
Vincent Gina
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01734.x
Subject(s) - psychology , psychopathy , class (philosophy) , developmental psychology , human factors and ergonomics , poison control , injury prevention , clinical psychology , social psychology , personality , medical emergency , medicine , artificial intelligence , computer science
Background: Recently, researchers have sought to measure psychopathy‐like features among youth in hopes of identifying children who may be progressing toward a particularly destructive form of adult pathology. However, it remains unclear whether psychopathy‐like personality features among youth are best conceptualized as dimensional (distributed along a continuum) or taxonic (such that youth with psychopathic personality characteristics are qualitatively distinct from non‐psychopathic youth). Methods: This study applied taxometric analyses (MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L‐Mode) to scores from two primary measures of youth psychopathy features: the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version ( N = 757) and the self‐report Antisocial Process Screening Device ( N = 489) among delinquent boys. Results: All analyses supported a dimensional structure, indicating that psychopathy features among youth are best understood as existing along a continuum. Conclusions: Although youth clearly vary in the degree to which they manifest psychopathy‐like personality traits, there is no natural, discrete class of young ‘psychopaths.’ This finding has implications for developmental theory, treatment, assessment strategies, research, and clinical/forensic practice.