Court-referred youths' views of their own psychopathy : "what's the problem?"

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between youth with psychopathic tendencies, their externalizing behaviors problems, and personal narrative coherence and richness. Participants were referred by the juvenile court system to an observation and assessment program and included 33 youth (ages 10-17 years) and their parents. The following measures were collected: Child Behavior Checklist, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Psychopathy Screening Device, and a Personal Narrative Interview. Youths and parents were in agreement in judging the youths' externalizing problems and the youths' impulsivity, but not the youths' callous/ unemotional traits. Parents were consistent among themselves in judging associations between their youths' externalizing problems and the youths' impulsivity, as well as with the youths' callous/ unemotional traits. The youths, however, saw no connection between their externalizing problems and their impulsivity or their callous/unemotional traits. Neither personal narrative coherence nor richness correlated with verbal IQ. Callous/ unemotional traits were not correlated with narrative coherence, but were negatively correlated with narrative richness. These patterns offer important implications for future research and treatment of youth with psychopathic tendencies.