Comparing the Stability of Psychopathy Scores in Adolescents versus Adults: How often is “Fledgling Psychopathy” Misdiagnosed?

Publication Date

2016

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Keywords

Personality, Psychopathy, Adolescent development, Juvenile justice

Abstract

Can psychopathy be identified as accurately during adolescence as adulthood? To address this developmental question, this study compared the stability of scores on the leading measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), among 202 adolescent (M = 15.8 years, SD = 0.89) and 134 adult (M = 27.5, SD = 1.08) offenders. Over a 2-year period, adolescents’ total scores on the PCL (r = .33) were less stable than those of adults (r = .71). Adolescents’ baseline PCL scores also weakly predicted psychopathy classifications 2 years later (AUC = .62), particularly compared with those of adults (AUC = .85). Finally, increases in psychosocial maturity over time predicted decreases in PCL scores for adolescents, but not adults. These results raise questions about reliance upon psychopathy measures to inform decisions about youthful offenders that will have long-term consequences.

Copyright Date

2016

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held bythe American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:

Cauffman, E., Skeem, J., Dmitrieva, J., & Cavanagh, C. (2016). Comparing the stability of psychopathy scores in adolescents versus adults: How often is “fledgling psychopathy” misdiagnosed? Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 22(1), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000078

Rights Holder

American Psychological Association

Provenance

Received from CHORUS

Language

English (eng)

Publication Title

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

Volume

22

Issue

1

First Page

77

Last Page

91

ISSN

1939-1528


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