Psychopathy Screening Device
The Psychopathy Screening Device is a measure designed to identify dimensions integral to the description of childhood psychopathy. This instrument was developed as an extension of the adult Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) for use with children, with each of the 20-items of the PCL-R being developed into an analogous item applicable to children.
Abstract: The Psychopathy Screening Device is a measure designed to identify dimensions integral to the description of childhood psychopathy. This instrument was developed as an extension of the adult Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) for use in children, with each of the 20-items of the PCL-R being developed into an analogous item applicable to children. The items are on a 3-point scale, with 0 indicating "Not at All True, 1 "Sometimes True" and 2 as "Definitely True". It was administered to the primary caregiver of the child in each family at grade 7. It is designed to assess three dimensions of psychopathy - a callous and unemotional interpersonal style, poor impulse control and narcissism. Scales for this measure were obtained from confirmatory factor analyses conducted on responses from the Normative and High Risk Control samples. Two items, 'Engaging in illegal activity' and 'Lies easily and skillfully', were excluded from the scaling. The results indicated 3 factors or scales for the 18 items, consistent with previous factor analytic results reported by Frick, Bodin and Barry (2000). The 3 factor solution revealed the dimensions of "Callous-unemotional Traits", "Narcissism" and "Problems of Impulse Control". Each scale score was calculated by taking an average of items comprising the scale if 50% or more of the item responses were available. This is a measure of the primary caregiver's perception of antisocial behaviors demonstrated by his or her child. It can be used to identify three or two dimensions fundamental to the description of childhood psychopathy. Specifically, this device can be used as a general measure of the child's potential for a lack of empathy and a callous and unemotional interpersonal style, problems with impulsivity and narcissism.
Who Completed this Measure?: Parent
Cohort 1 - Administrative History
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
Cohort 2 - Administrative History
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
Cohort 3 - Administrative History
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
Technical Reports:
Raw Dataset Name: PyAA
Scored Dataset Name: PSDySPc
Keywords:
Behavior problems, Emotional Disturbances, Emotional Response, Impulsivity, Narcissism, Personality Problems
Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: No
Obtain Measure:
Multi Health Systems
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) can be obtained through the publisher Multi Health Systems. Web: www.hare.org