Predictive and Convergent Validity of the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument in a Sample of Male and Female Justice-Involved Youth

Sufficient evidence exists that gender should and does matter in offender management. This study examined the predictive validity of risk and strength factors extracted from the Youth Assessment and Screening Instrument (YASI) and the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) in a sample of 254 justice-involved youth (148 males, 106 females) from Ontario, Canada. Overall, total risk scores from both measures predicted recidivism (area under receiver operator characteristic curve [AUCs] =.62-.70). Domain-level analyses illustrated that criminal attitudes and associates (scored as risks or protective/strengths) were among the strongest predictors of recidivism in both genders. The YASI demonstrated strong convergent validity with the YLS/CMI. The results support the YASI and the YLS/CMI as viable risk assessment measures for justice-involved male and female youth. Given that the YASI includes both gender neutral and gender responsive items, it may be a particularly good choice for use with justice-involved females

The Reliability and Validity of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates and the Pride in Delinquency Scale in a Mixed Sex Sample of Justice-Involved Youth

It is unclear if self-report measures of criminal attitudes and associates—developed and validated predominately on adult male offender samples—can or should be used with justice-involved girls. With a sample of 300 justice-involved youth (100 females, 200 males), this study examined the reliability and validity of the Measure of Criminal Attitudes and Associates (MCAA) and the Pride in Delinquency Scale (PIDS). Both measures evidenced reliability and convergent and discriminant validity in both sexes. The MCAA and the PIDS consistently predicted general recidivism for males (majority of area under the curve [AUCs; 7 out of 10] ranged from.60 to.68), but not for females (majority of AUCs [6 out of 8] ranged from.50 to.59). Both measures predicted violent recidivism across sex, with the majority of AUCs ranging from.60 to.67. More work is needed with exclusive female samples to better understand and operationalize criminal attitudes through a gender-informed lens

The strengths assessment inventory-youth version: An evaluation of the psychometric properties with male and female justice-involved youth

Strengths constitute an important element of developmental assessments. It is consistent with evidence-based practice to use assessment tools that adequately measure a given construct and are appropriate for use with their targeted population. The Strengths Assessment Inventory-Youth Version (SAI-Y; Rawana & Brownlee, 2010)-a self-report measure of personal strengths, self-concept, and emotional functioning-was administered to 230 male and female adolescent offenders. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the SAI-Y's factor structure demonstrated an acceptable fit overall, while some factors fit the data well, and fewer factors displayed a questionable fit. A majority of scale scores were found to exhibit good reliability for both sexes, with three empirical scale scores demonstrating poor reliability. In addition, scores on the SAI-Y also achieved satisfactory convergent and divergent validity. Total strength scores were significantly correlated in the expected direction with most theoretically related measures of emotional and behavioral functioning (e.g., self-esteem, treatment readiness, antisocial attitudes). Lastly, moderate gender effects and small ethnicity differences in response patterns were found. This was the first validation study of the SAI-Y with a justice-involved sample and the results suggest it is an appropriate measure for use with both male and female justice-involved young persons in detention and in the community

Youth with psychopathy features are not a discrete class: a taxometric analysis

BACKGROUND: Recently, researchers have sought to measure psychopathy-like features among youth in hopes of identifying children who may be progressing toward a particularly destructive form of adult pathology. However, it remains unclear whether psychopathy-like personality features among youth are best conceptualized as dimensional (distributed along a continuum) or taxonic (such that youth with psychopathic personality characteristics are qualitatively distinct from non-psychopathic youth). METHODS: This study applied taxometric analyses (MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and L-Mode) to scores from two primary measures of youth psychopathy features: the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (N = 757) and the self-report Antisocial Process Screening Device (N = 489) among delinquent boys. RESULTS: All analyses supported a dimensional structure, indicating that psychopathy features among youth are best understood as existing along a continuum. CONCLUSIONS: Although youth clearly vary in the degree to which they manifest psychopathy-like personality traits, there is no natural, discrete class of young \u27psychopaths.\u27 This finding has implications for developmental theory, treatment, assessment strategies, research, and clinical/forensic practice