ABSTRACT
In this study, we evaluated the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of scores on the Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales in a forensic sample of 496 adolescents (315 boys and 181 girls) who were court-ordered to receive psychological evaluations. We examined Cronbach's alpha coefficients, scale intercorrelation matrices, and frequencies of scale elevations. Further, we found varying degrees of support for the convergent and discriminant validity of scores on the MMPI-A (Butcher et al., 1992 ) Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales. This study adds to the body of literature establishing the utility of the MMPI-A in forensic evaluations.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Forensic Psychiatry/instrumentation , Juvenile Delinquency/psychology , MMPI/standards , Personality , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Multivariate Analysis , Psychology, Adolescent/instrumentation , Psychometrics , Regression Analysis , Reproducibility of Results , Sex Factors , Students/psychologyABSTRACT
High prevalence rates of psychological problems among juvenile offenders underscore the need for effective mental health screening tools in the juvenile justice system. In this study, we evaluated the validity of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2) developed by Grisso and Barnum (2001) to identify mental health needs of adolescents in various juvenile justice settings. The sample was 1,192 adolescents (1,082 boys and 110 girls) admitted into Virginia juvenile correction facilities between the dates of July 2004 and June 2006. Analyses revealed higher MAYSI-2 scale scores for girls than for boys and MAYSI-2 scale intercorrelations were similar to those reported in the MAYSI-2 manuals (Grisso & Barnum, 2003, 2006). We also evaluated the concurrent validity of MAYSI-2 scales by examining scale score correlations with related and unrelated extratest variables. Results showed strong convergent validity for several MAYSI-2 scales.
