Examination of Racial Differences on the MMPI-2 Clinical and Restructured Clinical Scales in an Outpatient Sample

Abstract

The current study examined the possibility of differential predictive accuracy of selected Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Second Edition (MMPI-2) clinical and Restructured Clinical (RC) scales in a group of Black and White mental health center clients. Results indicate that Black clients scored higher than White clients on one non-K-corrected clinical scale and 4 RC scales. All these differences produced medium effect sizes and were clinically significant according to Greene's (1987) criterion. These differences, however, were not accompanied by differential predictive accuracy of the scales in Black versus White clients. Although additional research is needed, especially on the RC scales, this study indicates that the MMPI-2 is not a biased predictor of symptomatology for Black versus White test takers.

Keywords

MMPI-2 clinical scales RC scales racial/ethnic differences test bias cultural bias

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