Minority Student Initiative: Brittany Penson

Brittany Penson

Brittany Penson is a 4th year student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Texas A&M University. Her paper, Using the Personality Assessment Inventory Antisocial and Borderline Features Scales to Predict Behavior Change: A Multisite Longitudinal Study of Youthful Offenders, was recently accepted to Assessment. Congratulations, Brittany! Thank you for sharing your accomplishment with us.
  

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​Abstract: A substantial amount of research has examined the developmental trajectory of antisocial behavior and, in particular, the relationship between antisocial behavior and maladaptive personality traits. However, research typically has not controlled for previous behavior (e.g., past violence) when examining the utility of personality measures, such as self- report scales of antisocial and borderline traits, in predicting future behavior (e.g., subsequent violence). Examination of the potential interactive effects of measures of both antisocial and borderline traits also is relatively rare in longitudinal research predicting adverse outcomes. The current study utilizes a large sample of youthful offenders (N = 1,354) from the Pathways to Desistance project to examine the separate effects of the Personality Assessment Inventory Antisocial Features (ANT) and Borderline Features (BOR) scales in predicting future offending behavior as well as trends in other negative outcomes (e.g., substance abuse, violence, employment difficulties) over a 1-year follow-up period. In addition, an ANT × BOR interaction term was created to explore the predictive effects of secondary psychopathy. ANT and BOR both explained unique variance in the prediction of various negative outcomes even after controlling for past indicators of those same behaviors during the preceding year.