MMPI Performance of Central American Refugees and Mexican Immigrants

Abstract

This study compared the MMPI scores of Central American refugees from Guatemala and El Salvador to those of Mexican immigrants. It was expected that subjects from Guatemala and El Salvador would obtain higher scores on the F, D, Pa, and Sc scales because these subjects came from "war-torn" countries. A multivariate analysis of variance yielded no significant differences between the three groups on any of the validity and clinical scales including F, D, Pa, and Sc. Recommendations for cross-national research are noted especially in light of the new version, or MMPI-2.

Ethnopsychological Method and the Psychological Assessment of Mexican Americans

“…Indeed, Spanish language translations have been renormed and restandardized to some degree with native populations (usually in Mexicosuch as the case of the Weschler Intelligence Scales and the MMPI) but not with a bilingual population (Dana, 1993;Figueroa, 1989;Lucio-G.M. To correct some of the discrepancy in knowledge regarding Mexican Americans and personality assessment, researchers such as Roberto Velasquez and his colleagues have completed multiple studies evaluating the between-group differences among Mexican American and African American adolescents (Gomez, Johnson, Davis, & Velasquez, 2000); Latin American populations, Mexicans, and Latino college students (Boscan et al, 2000;Cabiya et al, 2000); Central American and Mexican immigrants (Clark, Callahan, Lichtszajn, & Velasquez, 1996); and, of course, between Latino and White outcomes on the MMPI-2 (Velasquez, Callahan, & Young, 1993). Furthermore, proportionate representation in sampling continues to be the regular practice in psychometrics-meaning that Mexican Americans are sampled per their representation in the general population, which results in the maintenance of previously established norms.…”

“…That is, if there are not sufficient numbers of a minority group represented in a sample (more than just proportionate representation), the sample size remains insufficient to show difference in statistical norms for larger instruments such as the MMPI-2 and the Weschler Intelligence Scales. To correct some of the discrepancy in knowledge regarding Mexican Americans and personality assessment, researchers such as Roberto Velasquez and his colleagues have completed multiple studies evaluating the between-group differences among Mexican American and African American adolescents (Gomez, Johnson, Davis, & Velasquez, 2000); Latin American populations, Mexicans, and Latino college students (Boscan et al, 2000;Cabiya et al, 2000); Central American and Mexican immigrants (Clark, Callahan, Lichtszajn, & Velasquez, 1996); and, of course, between Latino and White outcomes on the MMPI-2 (Velasquez, Callahan, & Young, 1993). These studies have been essential in establishing that cultural influences may be important in determining response styles on personality tests and that all Latino groups may not be collapsed into a single comparison group.…”

Psychological features of North Korean female refugees on the MMPI–2: Latent profile analysis.

“…They also noted that the level of trauma significantly correlated positively with the mean profile elevation ( r = .23, p < .01). In another study using the original MMPI (Clark, Callahan, Lichtszajn, & Velasquez, 1996), Central American refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala to the United States showed an elevation on the F ( T > 70) and Psychopathic Deviate (Pd; T > 65) scales compared with Mexican immigrants to the United States. Last, H.…”

“…For example, Dong and Church (2003) and Clark et al (1996) examined the mean MMPI/MMPI-2 T scores averaged over the total sample with the assumption that the refugees under investigation were homogeneous and shared the same psychological characteristics. The authors of both studies, however, failed to note the possibility of the existence of subgroups with distinctive psychological features in their samples.…”

“…2We did preliminary analyses on our data using the methodologies adopted by these three studies. First, parallel to the studies by Dong and Church (2003) and Clark et al (1996), we calculated the average T scores for the Validity and Clinical scales using the Korean MMPI–2 norms. Contrary to the findings of these two refugee studies, all scales averaged within the normal range ( T < 60; see Table 1).…”