Measuring psychopathic traits in children through self-report. The development of the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory—Child Version

Abstract

The current article investigates whether self-reports of children provide reliable and valid information concerning psychopathic personality traits and behaviours. For this purpose, we developed a downward extension of an existing adolescent self-report measure; the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory [YPI; Andershed, H., Kerr, M., Stattin, H., & Levander, S. (2002). Psychopathic traits in non-referred youths: Initial test of a new assessment tool. In E.S. Blaauw, L. (Ed.), Psychopaths: Current international perspectives (pp. 131–158): The Hague: Elsevier], called the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory—Child Version (YPI-CV). The reliability and validity of the YPI-CV were tested in n = 360 children from the general population. The YPI-CV had good internal consistency and a three factor structure similar to the original adolescent version. Test–retest reliability over a 6-month period was adequate. In validating the instrument, both self, teacher and peer report were used. The convergent and divergent validity of the three YPI-CV dimensions was examined by relating each of them to an external criterion measures assessing the same construct. It was concluded that psychopathic traits can be measured reliably and meaningfully through self-report in 9 to 12 year olds and that the YPI-CV is potentially a useful instrument for doing so.