Robert P. Archer

Use of the MMPI with adolescents: A review of salient issues

Abstract The MMPI has received extensive use as a clinical assessment instrument with adolescent respondents. Despite increasingly widespread clinical utilization of this instrument, there have been few research investigations concerning MMPI characteristics of adolescent respondents. The purpose of this paper is to present the available literature on this topic and to identify salient issues surrounding the MMPI response patterns of adolescents. Specifically, issues related to conversion of raw scores to adolescent and adult norms are presented with emphasis on historical trends, clinical correlate data and factor analytic findings. Typical response characteristics from adolescent clinical samples are delineated for scoring procedures using adult and adolescent norms. The complexity and controversy surrounding selection of appropriate norms for adolescents are described and the need for further research on establishing clinical correlates of adolescent codetypes is underscored.

Identification of Random Responding on the MMPI-A

Although substantial research literature on the effects of random responding on the MMPI-2 exists, there is very limited data available on this issue with the MMPI-A. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of selected MMPI-A validity scales in detecting differences in response patterns between protocols produced by 354 adolescents assessed in clinical settings and a group of 354 randomly produced MMPI-A protocols. Results indicate that MMPI-A validity and basic clinical scales differ significantly between random and clinical groups and that MMPI-A validity Scales F, F1, F2, and VRIN appear to be most useful in correctly identifying protocols from actual clinical participants versus randomly generated response patterns. Findings are discussed in terms of the dramatic effects of the sample base rate for random responding on overall classification accuracy results. Furthermore, it was noted that the optimal cutting scores for MMPI-A Scales F, F1, F2, and VRIN were largely consistent with interpretive recommendations found in the test manual (Butcher et al., 1992) when the relative frequency of random response protocols to clinical protocols was evaluated at a ratio of 1:10. Finally, future recommendations for evaluation of the F1-F2 difference score and the TRIN scale are offered in terms of the most relevant research designs to evaluate these measures.

A Perspective on the Restructured Clinical (RC) Scale Project

The articles in this issue by Nichols (2006/this issue) and Rogers, Sewell, Harrison, and Jordan (2006/this issue) provide evaluations and critiques of the Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales developed by Tellegen et al. (2003) to reduce the high intercorrelations typically found among MMPI–2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) Basic scales and to correspondingly improve the discriminate validity of these scales. This manuscript provides another perspective that acknowledges that it would be premature to discontinue the use of the standard MMPI–2 basic scales until more research has been accumulated on the RC Scales. However, it is also proposed that the RC Scales are an innovative and important contribution that holds substantial potential for addressing a number of significant limitations in the MMPI–2 and thereby improving the assessment of psychopathology with this instrument.

MMPI-A patterns related to the endorsement of suicidal ideation

This study focused on the relationship between the occurrence of specific Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) basic scale profile patterns and the frequency of endorsement of three items related, in varying degrees, to suicide ideation (MMPI-A Items 177, 283, and 399). The research sample consisted of adolescents (n = 348) with diagnoses of depression, conduct disorder, and other psychiatric disorders. Significant relationships were found for the overall MMPI-A basic scale profile, several MMPI-A single scale high points, and specific two-point codetype groupings. Findings revealed higher basic clinical scale profiles for those adolescents endorsing suicidal ideation. Further results revealed lower frequencies of item endorsement for spike 4 and spike 9 profiles, and higher item endorsement frequencies for Scale 2, Scale 8, and for the two-point codetypes of 4-8/8-4, 8-919-8 and 6-8/8-6. Issues are discussed related to the clinical usefulness and limitations of the MMPI-A in the assessment and prediction of suicidal ideation and behavior in adolescents.

MMPI-A Scale-Level Factor Structure: Replication in a Clinical Sample

The adolescent form of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-A) Structural Summary was developed from the results of a scale-level factor analysis conducted by Archer, Belevich, and Elkins based on the MMPI-A normative sample. The present study examined the scale-level factor structure of the MMPI-A in a clinical sample of 358 adolescents receiving outpatient or inpatient psychiatric services. A Principal Factor Analysis was performed using the raw score intercorrelation matrix from the 69 scales and subscales of the MMPI-A. The procedure yielded nine factors that accounted for 75.6% of the total variance in scale and subscale raw scores. Results from this clinical sample indicated that seven of the eight dimensions that appear on the MMPI-A Structural Summary were replicated in terms of producing highly similar factor structure correlation coefficients with those reported by Archer, Belevich, et al. for a normal sample. The present findings support the use of the MMPI-A Structural Summary for the assessment of adolescents in clinical settings.