Ability of Substance Abusers to Escape Detection on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) in a Juvenile Correctional Facility
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online March, 2005
Ability of Substance Abusers to Escape Detection on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) in a Juvenile Correctional Facility
The ability of respondents to underreport successfully on substance abuse and validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A; Butcher et al., 1992) was evaluated. Incarcerated teens (67 substance abusing, 59 non-substance abusing) completed the MMPI-A twice: once under standard instructions (SI) and once under instructions to fake good (FG). Under SI, substance scales correctly classified about 60% to 85% of adolescents. Under FG, substance- and non-substance-abusing juveniles produced lower scores on substance scales. However, the Lie Scale (L) was able to detect more than 75% of deceptive profiles and about 77% of honest profiles. When scale L and the best substance scale were used in combination, only about 18% of faking substance abusers were not identified as either substance abusers or as underreporting. For feigning substance abusers, only about 10% of substance abusers were detected, with about 72% being categorized as faking and needing further assessment.
Archer, R. P. (1997). MMPI-A: Assessing adolescent psychopathology (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Archer, R. P., Elkins, D. E., Aiduk, R., & Griffin, R. (1997). The incremental validity of MMPI-2 supplementary scales. Assessment, 1, 193-205.
3.
Baer, R. A., Ballenger, J., & Kroll, L. S. (1998). Detection of under-reporting on the MMPI-A in clinical and community samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 71, 98-113.
4.
Basham, R. B. (1992). Clinical utility of the MMPI research scales in the assessment of adolescent acting out behaviors. Psychological Assessment, 4, 483-492.
5.
Ben-Porath, Y. S., McCully, E., & Almagor, M. (1993). Incremental validity of the MMPI-2 content scales in the assessment of personality and psychopathology by self-report. Journal of Personality Assessment, 61, 193-205.
6.
Butcher, J.N., Dahlstrom, W.G., Graham, J.R., Tellegen, A., & Kaemmer, B. (1989). MMPI-2: Manual for administration and scoring. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
7.
Butcher, J. N., & Han, K. (1995). Development of an MMPI-2 scale to assess the presentation of self in a superlative manner: The S Scale. In J. N. Butcher & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment, Volume 10 (pp. 25-50). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
8.
Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R. P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., et al. (1992). MMPI-A: Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
9.
Cashel, M. L., Rogers, R., Sewell, K. W., & Holliman, N. B. (1998). Preliminary validation of the MMPI-A for a male delinquent sample: An investigation of clinical correlates and discriminant validity. Journal of Personality Assessment, 71, 49-69.
10.
Cofer, C. N., Chance, J., & Judson, A. J. (1949). A study of malingering on the MMPI. Journal of Psychology, 27, 491-499.
11.
Edwards, A. L. (1957). The social desirability variable in personality assessment and research. New York: Dryden.
12.
Gallucci, N. T. (1997). Correlates of MMPI-A substance abuse scales. Assessment, 4, 87-94.
13.
Gantner, A. B., Graham, J. R., & Archer, R. P. (1992). Usefulness of the MAC scale in differentiating adolescents in normal, psychiatric, and substance abuse settings. Psychological Assessment, 4, 133-137.
14.
Gottesman, I. I., & Prescott, C. A. (1989). Abuses of the MacAndrew MMPI alcoholism scale: A critical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 9, 223-242.
15.
Hathaway, S. R., & McKinley, J. C. (1940). A multiphasic personality schedule (Minnesota): I. Construction of the schedule. Journal of Psychology, 10, 249-254.
16.
Hawkins, C. E. (1987, September). Mental health survey. Unpublished interoffice communication on the Ohio Mental Health Prevalence Study.
17.
Herkov, M. J., Archer, R. P., & Gordon, R. A. (1991). MMPI response sets among adolescents: An evaluation of the limitations of the subtle-obvious subscales. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 3, 424-426.
18.
MacAndrew, C. (1965). The differentiation of male alcoholic outpatients from nonalcoholic psychiatric outpatients by means of the MMPI. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 26, 238-246.
19.
McNulty, J. L., Graham, J. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Stein, L. A. R. (1997). A comparative study of the validity of MMPI-2 scores in African American and Caucasian outpatients. Psychological Assessment, 9, 464-470.
20.
Miller, G. A. (1990). The SASSI Adolescent manual. Bloomington, IN: SASSI Institute.
21.
Otto, R. K., Lang, A. R., Megargee, E. I., & Rosenblatt, A. I. (1988). Ability of alcoholics to escape detection by the MMPI. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 452-457.
22.
Pena, L. M., Megargee, E. I., & Brody, E. (1996). MMPI-A patterns of male juvenile delinquents. Psychological Assessment, 8, 388-397.
23.
Pollock, N. K., Martin, C. S., & Langenbucher, J. W. (2000). Diagnostic concordance of DSM-III, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV and ICD-10 alcohol diagnoses in adolescents. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 61, 439-446.
24.
Rogers, R., Cashel, M. L., Johansen, J., Sewell, K. W., & Gonzalez, C. (1997). Evaluation of adolescent of fenders with substance abuse: Validation of the SASSI with conduct-disordered youth. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 24, 114-128.
25.
Rogers, R., & Kelly, K. S. (1997). Denial and misreporting of substance abuse. In R. Rogers (Ed.), Clinical assessment of malingering and deception (pp. 108-129). New York: Guilford.
26.
Stein, L. A. R., Colby, S. M., O’Leary, T., Monti, P. M., Rohsenow, D., Spirito, A., et al. (2002). Response distortion in adolescents who smoke: A pilot study. Journal of Drug Education, 32, 271-286.
27.
Stein, L. A. R., & Graham, J. R. (1999). Detecting fake-good MMPI-A profiles in a correctional facility. Psychological Assessment, 11, 386-395.
28.
Stein, L. A. R., & Graham, J. R. (2001). Use of the MMPI-A to detect substance abuse in a juvenile correctional setting. Journal of Personality Assessment, 77, 508-523.
29.
Stein, L. A. R., Graham, J. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & McNulty, J. L. (1999). Using the MMPI-2 to detect substance abuse in an outpatient mental health setting. Psychological Assessment, 11, 94-100.
30.
Stein, L. A. R., McClinton, B. K., & Graham, J. R. (1995, March). Examining possible ethnic differences on the MMPI-A. Paper presented at the 30th annual Symposium on Recent Developments in the Use of the MMPI (MMPI-2 and MMPI-A), Tampa, FL.
31.
Sweeney, B. (1987). Alcohol and Drug Use Survey (ADUS). Unpublished survey instrument for the Ohio Dept. of Youth Services. Funded by the Ohio Governor’s Office of Criminal Justice Services in cooperation with the Ohio Dept. of Mental Health.
32.
Teplin, L. A., Abram, K. M., McClelland, G. M., Dulcan, M. K., & Mericle, A. A. (2002). Psychiatric disorders in youth in juvenile detention. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 1133-1143.
33.
Turner, C., Lessler, J., & Devore, J. (1992). The effects of mode of administration and wording on reporting of drug use. In C. F. Turner, J. T. Lessler, & J. C. Gfroerer (Eds.), Survey measurement of drug use: Methodological studies. Rockville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.
34.
Wasserman, G., Jensen, P., Ko, S., Cocozza, J., Trupin, E., Angold, A., et al. (2003). Mental health assessments in juvenile justice: Report on the Consensus Conference. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 752-761.
35.
Waterton, J. J., & Duffy, J. C. (1984). A comparison of computer interviewing techniques and traditional methods in the collection of self-report alcohol consumption data in a field survey. International Statistical Review, 52, 173-182.
36.
Weed, N. C., Butcher, J. N., & Williams, C. L. (1994). Development of MMPI-A alcohol/drugproblemscales. Journalof Studies on Alcohol, 55, 296-302.
37.
Wiggins, J. S. (1959). Interrelationships among MMPI measures of dis-simulation under standard and social desirability instructions. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 23, 419-427.
38.
Winters, K. (1990). The need for improved assessment of adolescent substance involvement. The Journal of Drug Issues, 20, 487-502.
39.
Winters, K. C. (1999). A new multiscale measure of adult substance abuse. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 16(3), 237-246.
40.
Wolfson, K. P., & Erbaugh, S. E. (1984). Adolescent responses to the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 52, 625-630.
