Antisocial process screening device: Validation on a Russian sample of juvenile delinquents with the emphasis on the role of personality and parental rearing

The objectives of the present study were 1) to validate the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) in a sample of Russian juvenile delinquents; 2) to examine subgroups of delinquents with higher versus lower levels of childhood problem behaviors with respect to the APSD subscales, personality traits, and parental rearing; and 3) to attempt to replicate the previous finding that the APSD subscale measuring callous/unemotional traits can differentiate subgroups of delinquents with different precursors for problem behaviors (predominantly biological versus predominantly social). A group of 250 Russian juvenile inmates (mean age = 16.4) was examined by means of the APSD completed by the staff at the correctional institution. The inmates completed several self-reports assessing their current and childhood behavior problems, personality traits and experienced parental rearing practices. A factor structure of the APSD was obtained that is similar, albeit not identical, to that from the original studies by Frick and colleagues [Frick, P.J., O'Brien, B.S., Wootton, J.M., McBurnett, K., (1994). Psychopathy and conduct problems in children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 700–707]; [Frick, P.J., Barry, C.T., Bodin, S.D., (1999). Applying the concept of psychopathy to children: Implications for the Assessment of antisocial youth. In Gacono, C.B. (Ed), The clinical and forensic assessment of psychopathy: A practitioners guide. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum]; [Frick, P.J., Lilienfeld, S.O., Ellis, M., Loney, B., Silverthorn, P., (1999). The association between anxiety and psychopathy dimensions in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 27, 383–392]; callous unemotional traits in the present sample were expressed in manipulative behavior. Results further disclosed higher levels of antisocial and aggressive activities, higher levels of personality attributes such as narcissism and novelty seeking, as well as lower cooperativeness, and negatively perceived parental rearing in a subgroup with higher (versus lower) number of childhood symptoms of conduct disorder and oppositional disorder. The juvenile delinquents with higher levels as compared to lower levels of callous unemotional traits also perceived their parents as using more negative rearing strategies. The findings are discussed in terms of interactional processes between personality of the juvenile delinquents and parental rearing in the development of antisocial behavior.