Distinguishing Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY–5) Characteristics Associated With Violent and Nonviolent Juvenile Delinquency

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A) Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY–5) scales and violent and nonviolent juvenile delinquency. Participants were 260 adolescent boys and girls in a forensic setting. Results indicated that Disconstraint (DISC), a marker of behavioral disinhibition and impulsivity, was associated with nonviolent delinquency, whereas Aggressiveness (AGGR), which is characterized by the use of instrumental aggression and interpersonal dominance, was specifically associated with violent delinquency. These findings are consistent with expectations based on empirical findings in the broader personality literature linking the construct of disinhibition with externalizing psychopathology as well as the literature identifying callous-unemotional aggression as a risk factor for violence.

Acknowledgments

Support for this study was granted in part by the University of Minnesota Press, publisher of the MMPI–A. Portions of this article were presented in 2006 at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment, New Orleans, LA.

Notes

It is important to consider that narcissism might be a misnomer in that most of the characteristics that load on this factor appear to better reflect interpersonal manipulation than grandiosity or self-centeredness.

The ages of 51 of 66 participants excluded from the study were missing. Thus, the mean age comparison of participants is only based on the ages of 15 of the excluded participants.

Empirical examination of the original data set was reported in Veltri et al. (2009). The results presented here are the culmination of a secondary analysis of the same data set. In addition to including female adolescents, whose data were not reported on in that study, this study examines variables that were not available for inclusion in the earlier study.

Given the straightforward nature of the Ohio Revised Code and subsequent coding procedure, it is unlikely that a substantial amount of error variance was introduced.

We also explored interaction effects for AGGR and DISC in predicting delinquency. These did not add incremental prediction in either regression (ps >.20).