Factor structure and construct validity of the Basic Personality Inventory with juvenile offenders

The Basic Personality Inventory (BPI), a brief, self-report measure of psychopathology, is presented as a potentially useful assessment device with young offenders. Previous research on the BPI's twelve clinical scales has identified a three-factor structure: Psychiatric Symptomatology, Depression, and Social Symptomatology. This study initially investigated the BPI factor structure with a sample of 1,232 young offenders and results replicated the previous findings. Next, the construct validity of the factors was evaluated by comparing the factor scores of five sub-groups of 639 offenders contrasted with characteristics such as previous offences. Four of the five comparisons resulted in significant MANOVA's with univariate ANOVA's significant for the factors as predicted, providing evidence for construct validity. Parallels are drawn between the factors and other young offender typologies. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.