Construct Validity of the Youth Psychopathic Features Inventory (YPI) and the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) with Justice Involved Adolescents

Two measures of psychopathic features in youths, the self-report version of the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) and the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) were administered to 165 youths in a juvenile diversion program. For both measures, internal consistency was poor for the scales that assess the affective domain of psychopathic features; otherwise, internal consistency was excellent for the YPI and generally superior to that of the APSD. However, the published three-factor models for both measures did not replicate when examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Both measures obtained the expected correlations with measures of a variety of criminal justice (e.g., age of delinquency onset, past year delinquent behavior) and psychological constructs (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behavior), providing evidence of construct validity for both measures. The YPI appears to be the better measure for exploring the construct of psychopathy in adolescents. Recommendations are made concerning revisions to the APSD.