Incarcerated juvenile delinquentspsychopathic traits and the relevance of callous-unemotional traits

Resumo

Over the last decades, a significant body of research has extended the psychopathy construct to adolescents, suggesting that those with elevated psychopathic traits in general and elevated callous-unemotional traits in particular are an important subgroup of antisocial youth showing a particularly severe, violent and persistent pattern of behavior. The present investigation has as its aims: I) to analyze the psychometric properties of the Antisocial Process Screening Device–Self-Report (APSD-SR), II) the applicability of the DSM-5’s Conduct Disorder new Limited Prosocial Emotions specifier, and III) the relevance of callous-unemotional traits while controlling for age of crime onset in incarcerated juvenile delinquents. The participants were male and female incarcerated youths from the Juvenile Detention Centers of the Portuguese Ministry of Justice. Results support the use of the APSD-SR among incarcerated male youths in terms of its three-factor structure and internal consistency despite one item had to be removed from the callous-unemotional dimension. Results also show that the new Limited Prosocial Emotions specifier seems to be useful in the characterization of incarcerated male youths, allowing to highlight a number of problematic issues that define them, but seems to be less useful regarding incarcerated female youths. However, when controlling for age of crime onset no statistically significant correlations were found between callous-unemotional traits and self-reported delinquency and crime seriousness, raising the possibility that the relation between these variables is influenced by age of crime onset. The present investigation adds support to the existing body of research and contributes to the further application of the psychopathy construct to incarcerated youths.