The primary purposes of this study were: (1) to determine if total sco
res on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) are significantly rel
ated to the number of impulsive behaviors a patient displays; (2) to d
etermine if within a population of adolescent psychiatric patients the
re exists a subgroup of individuals who display multiple impulsive beh
aviors; (3) to determine if multi-impulsivity is a useful concept with
in a female sample; and (4) to determine if the PCL-R is useful for me
asuring behavioral impulsiveness in females. The current study extends
past multi-impulsive research by: (1) studying adolescents from a res
idential psychiatric facility; (2) the inclusion of enuresis as an imp
ulsive behavior; (3) the inclusion of female patients; and (4) the use
of the PCL-R, a behavioral checklist designed to measure psychopathic
behavior. The results indicate that the total score on the PCL-R is s
ignificantly related to the number of impulsive behaviors exhibited by
a patient. The number of impulsive behaviors displayed was not relate
d to a patient's age, IQ, length of present stay, educational placemen
t or number of restraints per month. Multiple impulsive behaviors were
evident in 88% of the adolescent patients and equally present in both
the male (87%) and female (89%) subgroups. Male patients exhibiting t
hree or more impulsive behaviors form a markedly different subgroup of
multi-impulsive patients who scored significantly higher on the PCL-R
. It is suggested that these patients may suffer from a true generaliz
ed lack of impulse control. These results are consistent with and lend
support to previous studies on the concept of multi-impulsivity.