Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Psychiatry Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Factor structure and clinical utility of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory in an inpatient sample Carla G. Muñoz a , Anna Abate a , Carla Sharp b , Amanda C. Venta a, ⁎ a Sam Houston State University, Department of Psychology, Campus Box 2447, Huntsville, TX 77341-2447, USA b University of Houston, Department of Psychology, Houston, TX, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Psychopathy Antisocial personality disorder Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory Personality Assessment Inventory Adolescent Inpatient ABSTRACT Previous research on the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed et al., 2002) has identified a three-factor structure: Interpersonal, Affective, and Behavioral. The present study sought to test this three-factor structure and broader psychometric properties of the YPI in a sample of 328 adolescents undergoing inpatient psychiatric care. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the hypothesized three-factor structure of the YPI previously documented in community samples. Exploratory analyses reported on modification indices, gender invariance, and fit of a bifactor model. Additionally, the clinical utility of the YPI was examined by examined the relation between the YPI and the antisocial personality scale of the Personality Assessment In- ventory (PAI-A-ANT; Morey, 2007). Confirmatory Factor Analysis results did not replicate the previously documented three-factor structure in the inpatient sample; a bifactor model continued to display poor (albeit improved) fit. Still, there was a strong association between the YPI (total and factor scores) and PAI-A-ANT, as such the YPI accurately identified adolescents with clinically significant antisocial traits. A cut-off score is presented for the YPI total score. 1. Introduction Psychopathy is commonly diagnosed in early adulthood, yet there is evidence that psychopathic traits can first manifest during adolescence and are conceptualized as continuous across development (Forth and Mailloux, 2000) and relatively static (Harris et al., 2015). Some have argued that core psychopathic traits such as egocentrism, irresponsi- bility and impulsivity are normative in youth (Petrila and Skeem, 2003; Seagrave and Grisso, 2002), while others have provided support for the presence of non-normative psychopathic traits among adolescents (Farrington, 2005; Frick and Marsee, 2006; Neumann et al., 2006). This debate points to the need for additional research on psychopathy in young samples. Further, the early identification of psychopathic traits in adolescence has been of growing interest, primarily due to the notion that early detection provides an opportunity to preempt further im- pairment through early intervention (Forth and Mailloux, 2000), pre- ventive programs, prediction of violent behavior (Seagrave and Grisso, 2002), and insight on different pathways towards severe anti- social behaviors (Salekin and Lynam, 2011). Given that there is sig- nificant lack of treatment and intervention for psychopathy in both adults and adolescents, research in youth can not only add important clinical information but also potentially enhance the early identification of psychopathic traits and the development of early treatment approaches. While psychopathy is widely assessed in offender populations to inform decisions about adolescents in the justice system (Cauffman et al., 2009, 2016; Viljoen et al., 2010), it is assessed much less frequently in clinical settings. However, psychopathy assessments also carry clinical import; in adolescents, psychopathic traits relate to problems with peers (Munoz et al., 2008), criminal behavior (e.g. Poythress et al., 2006), antisocial behavior (Declercq et al., 2009), and impulsivity, anger, and violent behaviors and substance use (e.g., Colins et al., 2015); all problematic situations likely to be relevant in clinical settings. Thus, several measures have been developed to assess psychopathy in adolescents, such as the Youth Psychopathic Traits In- ventory (YPI; Andershed et al., 2002), which is the focus of the current study. The YPI focuses on core interpersonal, behavioral, and affective features of psychopathic personality (Skeem and Cauffman, 2003) and has demonstrated that it can identify severely aggressive, antisocial adolescents (e.g., Andershed et al., 2002), and is associated with criminal behavior (Dolan and Rennie, 2006), delinquency, gang in- volvement (Poytheress et al., 2006), and destruction of property (Skeem and Cauffman, 2003). The factor structure of the YPI has been a topic of some uncertainty. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.03.031 Received 12 September 2018; Received in revised form 18 March 2019; Accepted 18 March 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: aventa@shsu.edu (A.C. Venta). Psychiatry Research 275 (2019) 189–195 Available online 20 March 2019 0165-1781/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T