A psychological profile of juvenile firesetters in residential treatment.

Psychological test data of 30 known juvenile and adolescent firesetters were compared with those of a matched control group, within a residential treatment center, to distinguish the identifying characteristics of each group. Hypotheses based on 80 variables found in the literature on firesetting were treated by using a standard test equivalent for each variable. Of the hypotheses, 14 were found to differentiate significantly the two groups, but not all in the predicted direction. Four characteristics were found to be sufficient to discriminate between the groups with greater efficiency than any other combination of variables. A predictor equation is set forth.