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Psychopathic Personality Traits in Relation to Self-report Delinquency in Adolescence: Should We Mind About Interaction Effects?

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate if interaction effects among Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) Grandiose-Manipulative (GM), Callous-Unemotional (CU), and Impulsive-Irresponsible (II) may add significant information in predicting self-reports of juvenile delinquent behavior among adolescents. A sample of 558 Italian high school students were administered the YPI and the Self-Reports of Delinquency Scale (SRDS) in order to evaluate interaction effects among YPI GM, CU, and II dimensions. Results showed a significant effect for a three-way interaction among the three YPI dimensions in predicting the SRDS total score, β = .19, p < .01. In conclusion, the findings seem to underline that a three-factor model of psychopathy may help clinicians and researchers in predicting self-reported delinquency better than the individual factors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

    Antonella Somma, Serena Borroni & Andrea Fossati

  2. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Unit, San Raffaele Turro Hospital, Milan, Italy

    Antonella Somma, Serena Borroni & Andrea Fossati

  3. School of Law, Psychology and Social Work, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

    Henrik Andershed

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Randall T. Salekin

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  1. Antonella Somma
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  2. Henrik Andershed
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Correspondence to Andrea Fossati.

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Antonella Somma, Henrik Andershed, Serena Borroni, Andrea Fossati and Randy Salekin declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Somma, A., Andershed, H., Borroni, S. et al. Psychopathic Personality Traits in Relation to Self-report Delinquency in Adolescence: Should We Mind About Interaction Effects?. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 40, 69–78 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-018-9658-6

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