Browsing by Subject "juvenile psychopathy"

Objective Psychopathy is closely associated with criminality. There has been disagreement among researchers whether the psychopathy construct is applicable to children and adolescents. However, studies suggest that psychopathy is a life-long disorder. Biological, as well as environmental factors influence the development of psychopathic traits, although psychosocial risk factors of psychopathy - especially in the case of juveniles - are not well known. The first aim of the study was to examine whether adolescent's psychopathy can be predicted with seven familial and parental risk factors. The second aim was to examine whether adolescent's psychopathy can be predicted with cumulative risk. Methods The data included 14-19 year-old juvenile offenders (n=1293). Psychopathic traits were assessed with PCL: YV. Based on interviews with parents or other collateral reporters, five risk factors were assessed: parental mental problems, parental substance abuse, parental criminality, yearly household income and adolescent's history of social services. Parental monitoring and knowledge were assessed using The Parental Monitoring inventory. Cumulative risk was constructed dichotomizing each risk factor and then summing the dichotomous scores. The associations between risk factors and adolescent's psychopathic traits were examined with linear regression analysis. The association between cumulative risk and psychopathic traits were examined with ANOVA. Results and conclusions Parental mental problems, parental drug and alcohol problems, parental criminality, low parental monitoring, low parental knowledge and adolescent's history of social services predicted adolescent's psychopathy. However, after controlling the effects of other risk factors, only parental monitoring, parental knowledge and adolescent's history of social services remained significant predictors of psychopathy, as the effects of the other variables were explained by these three risk factors. Household income was not associated with adolescent's psychopathic traits. In addition, the more risk factors one had, the more he/she had psychopathic traits on average. This information can be applied in preventing psychopathy, improving treatment of psychopathy and reducing criminality.