Latent Personality Profiles and the Relations with Psychopathology and Psychopathic Traits in Detained Adolescents

Abstract

The present study constructed empirically derived subtypes of adolescent offenders based on general traits and examined their associations withpsychopathologyand psychopathic traits. The sample included 342 detained minors (172 boys and 170 girls; mean age 15.85years, SD=1.07) recruited in various Youth Detention Centers across the Flemish part of Belgium. All adolescents provided self-reports on the quick big five, the youth self report, and the youth psychopathic traits inventory to assess general traits,psychopathology, and psychopathic traits respectively.Latentclass analyses based on generalpersonalitytraits were performed and suggested threepersonalitytypes, consisting of an emotionally labile, close-minded and goal-oriented class, an undercontrolled class, and an emotionally labile-careless class. These threepersonalitytypes within detained minors showed particular constellations of general traits and differed meaningfully in terms of their mean-scores on externalizingpsychopathologyand psychopathy measures.