MMPI-A patterns of male juvenile delinquents.

Abstract

The usefulness of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) (J. was examined for 162 delinquent boys in a state training school. Their base rates, patterns, and configurations on all the MMPI-A scales and subscales were determined and compared with those of the 805 nondeliquent male adolescents in the MMPI-A standardization sample and with the original MMPI patterns of 7,783 delinquents identified in a literature review. The most prominent clinical scales were 4, 6, and 9, and 49/94 was the most frequent 2-point code.The study confirmed 14 of 18 hypotheses for mean differences on the 38 MMPI-A validity, clinical, supplementary, and content scales, and also found significant mean differences on 33 of the other 51 MMPI-A scales and subscalcs, 13 of which were large enough to be clinically meaningful. Most of the MMPI-A patterns and configurations were consistent with the literature on male juvenile delinquents.The original Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) has been used in the clinical assessment of juvenile delinquents for over 50 years.Comparing 101 delinquent with 85 nondelinquent girls. Capwell (1945) reported that the delinquents had significantly higher scores on

Ability of Substance Abusers to Escape Detection on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) in a Juvenile Correctional Facility

“…There has been increasing interest in the application of the MMPI-A (Butcher et al, 1992) to juvenile offender populations (e.g., see Cashel, Rogers, Sewell, & Holliman, 1998;Pena, Megargee, & Brody, 1996;, 2001). Screening and assessing for substance problems can be important for understanding factors that may have been involved in misconduct as well as treatment placement.…”

“…It is especially important to screen and assess for such disorders in juvenile correctional settings, where often this is the adolescent's first opportunity for intervention. There is a high rate of substance use and abuse in justice-involved teens (Teplin, Abram, McClelland, Dulcan, & Mericle, 2002), and it is important to be able to identify those adolescents who need more services and those who may not require as many services from a system with few resources.There has been increasing interest in the application of the MMPI-A (Butcher et al, 1992) to juvenile offender populations (e.g., see Cashel, Rogers, Sewell, & Holliman, 1998;Pena, Megargee, & Brody, 1996;, 2001). Screening and assessing for substance problems can be important for understanding factors that may have been involved in misconduct as well as treatment placement.…”

Validity of the MMPI‐2 basic and Harris–Lingoes subscales in a forensic sample

“…These findings add to an accumulating body of evidence that is challenging the traditional notion of depression as an "inhibitory" MMPI scale (Megargee et al, 1999). Pena, Megargee, and Brody (1996) questioned the D scale as an inhibitory measure among juvenile correctional populations, as this scale was not as suppressed as Scales 5 and 0. They suggested that elevations on the D scale are likely a product of incarceration.…”

The Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory in the Assessment of Juvenile Offenders

“…The MMPI-A is an adolescent version of the MMPI that was developed by Butcher et al (1992). Pena, Megargee, and Brody (1996) tested the MMPI-A's ability to discriminate between delinquent and non-delinquent adolescents, and compared these results with patterns found in previous MMPI studies on delinquency. The authors studied the MMPI-A profiles of 162 adolescent males at a residential training school for youth adjudicated by juvenile courts for criminal offenses, and compared them to 805 non-delinquent males from the MMPI-A standardization sample.…”

“…The MMPI-A is an adolescent version of the MMPI that was developed by Butcher et al (1992). Pena, Megargee, and Brody (1996) A recent study evaluated the use of the MMPI-A in identifying PTSD in a sample of 60 incarcerated males who ranged in age from 13 to 18. The authors utilized the PTSD reaction index, a 20-item self-report inventory to classify offenders into a PTSD group (n = 36), and a non-PTSD group (n = 24).…”