Psychopathy in youth: Pursuing diagnostic clarity

Psychopathy in youth has received increased recognition as a critical clini cal construct for the evaluation and management of troubled adolescents (e. g., Frick, P. J, (1998). In Cooke, D. J., Forth, A. E., and Hare, R. D. (ed s.), Psychopathy: Theory, Research and Implications for Society. Kluwer Aca demic Publishers, Boston, MA, pp. 161-187; Lynam. D. R. (1998). J. Abnorm. Psychol., 107: 566-575). To date, clinical research has examined psychopath y simply as a global construct rather than focusing on its specific criteri a. in addition, researchers have tended to utilize downward extensions of a dult conceptualizations of psychopathy to understand this syndrome in youth . This study was designed to assist in clarifying the construct of psychopa thy in youth from a fresh perspective via prototypical analysis. Psychologi sts the Clinical Child Psychology Section of the American Psychological Ass ociation (i.e., Division 53; N = 511) rated the prototypicality of the psyc hopathy construct for both male and female youth. Factor analyses for both genders resulted in 2 dimensions that reflected both personality and behavi oral components of the disorder. Prototypicality ratings revealed important adult-to-child and male-to-female differences. In addition, child psycholo gists' views of their effectiveness at treating psychopathy in youth was su rveyed Contrary to the prevailing pessimism, clinical child psychologists r eported that children and adolescents made moderate gains in psychotherapy. These results provide a framework for clinical child psychologists in thei r evaluations and treatment of psychopathic youth.