Operationalizing the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy in Adolescents Using the MMPI-A-RF (Restructured Form)

The triarchic model is an increasingly influential multidimensional model of psychopathy that focuses on three distinct phenotypic domains of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. Although originally operationalized through the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), the triarchic model has also been operationalized through items of existing psychopathy and personality measures that provide sufficient content coverage of the triarchic dimensions. The current study aimed to provide a means for enhancing understanding of psychopathic features in adolescents through the development and validation of triarchic scales using items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent-Restructured Form (MMPI-A-RF). The MMPI-A-RF normative sample and a large sample of juveniles undergoing court-ordered evaluations were used for formal scale development and the juvenile-court sample was also used for validation analyses. The MMPI-A-RF triarchic scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency in both the normative and juvenile offender samples, and were largely related to criterion variables, including measures of personality, psychopathology, interpersonal functioning, and adolescent concerns as predicted based on the triarchic model. Canonical correlation analyses revealed unexpected and novel findings of (variable-centered) patterns of associations between our predictor triarchic scales and criterion variables that resemble "primary" and "secondary" psychopathy variants or subtypes. Overall, findings suggest that the triarchic model as indexed by the MMPI-A-RF scales can be useful for understanding how psychopathy may manifest in youth and for identifying youth at risk for severe and persistent antisocial behavior.