Development of The Antisocial Personality Characteristics Scale: Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

This study aims to develop an up-to-date scale that can be used in the assessment of antisocial personality traits and to conduct validity and reliability studies. The Antisocial Personality Characterisitics Scale (APCS) items were developed by benefiting DSM-5 diagnostic criteria and various clinical descriptions. In the pilot application, the number of items was reduced to 22 as a result of the analysis applied to a data set of 171 individuals. In the main application, data were collected from a total of 794 university students and a community sample consisting of 555 females (69.9%) and 239 males (30.1%) aged 18-73 (27.72±9.61). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted with the data of 387 participants, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted with the data of 407 participants. According to the EFA conducted for construct validity, it was seen that the 17-item APCS, which had a 4-dimensional factor structure and explained 56.26% of the variance, had acceptable fit indices with only one modification in the CFA. Test-retest correlations were found between .72 and .89 and item-total correlations between .40 and .58. Cronbach's alpha values of the scale were between .67 and .76. In addition, as a result of the analyses conducted for convergent validity, the APCS had significant correlations with other scales. In conclusion, it was determined that the APCS, a scale developed in Turkish culture, is a valid and reliable scale with strong psychometric properties that can be used to assess antisocial personality traits and susceptibility to antisocial personality disorder.

Keywords

• antisocial personality disorder
• validity
• reliability
• scale development