Editing Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (section)

=== MMPI-A ===

A version of the test designed for adolescents ages 14 to 18, the MMPI-A, was released in 1992. The youth version was developed to improve measurement of personality, behavior difficulties, and psychopathology among adolescents. It addressed limitations of using the original MMPI among adolescent populations.<ref name="Butcher (1992)">Butcher, J.N., Williams, C.L., Graham, J.R., Archer, R.P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y.S., & Kaemmer, B. (1992). ''Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent Version(MMPI-A): Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation''.  Minneapolis, MN:  University of Minnesota Press.</ref> Twelve- to thirteen-year-old children were assessed and could not adequately understand the question content so the MMPI-A is not meant for children younger than 14. People who are 18 and no longer in high school may appropriately be tested with the MMPI-2.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A interpretation|last=Butcher and Williams|first=Jim and Carolyn|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=1992}}</ref>

Some concerns related to use of the MMPI with youth included inadequate item content, lack of appropriate [[norm (social)|norms]], and problems with extreme reporting. For example, many items were written from an adult perspective, and did not cover content critical to adolescents (e.g., peers, school). Likewise, adolescent norms were not published until the 1970s, and there was not consensus on whether adult or adolescent norms should be used when the instrument was administered to youth. Finally, the use of adult norms tended to overpathologize adolescents, who demonstrated elevations on most original MMPI scales (e.g., T scores greater than 70 on the F validity scale; marked elevations on clinical scales 8 and 9). Therefore, an adolescent version was developed and tested during the restandardization process of the MMPI, which resulted in the MMPI-A.<ref name="Butcher (1992)" />

The MMPI-A has 478 items. It includes the original 10 clinical scales (Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Mf, Pa, Pt, Sc, Ma, Si), six validity scales (?, L, F, F1, F2, K, VRIN, TRIN), 31 Harris Lingoes subscales, 15 content component scales (A-anx, A-obs, A-dep, A-hea, A-ain, A-biz, A-ang, A-cyn, A-con, A-lse, A-las, A-sod, A-fam, A-sch, A-trt), the Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales (AGGR, PSYC, DISC, NEGE, INTR), three social [[introversion]] subscales (Shyness/Self-Consciousness, Social Avoidance, Alienation), and six supplementary scales (A, R, MAC-R, ACK, PRO, IMM). There is also a short form of 350 items, which covers the basic scales (validity and clinical scales). The validity, clinical, content, and supplementary scales of the MMPI-A have demonstrated adequate to strong [[repeatability|test-retest reliability]], internal consistency, and validity.<ref name="Butcher (1992)" />

A four factor model (similar to all of the MMPI instruments) was chosen for the MMPI-A and included
# General Maladjustment,
# Over-control (repression) (L, K, Ma),
# Si (Social Introversion),
# MF (Masculine/Feminine).<ref name=":0" />

The MMPI-A normative and clinical samples included 805 males and 815 females, ages 14 to 18, recruited from eight schools across the United States and 420 males and 293 females ages 14 to 18 recruited from treatment facilities in [[Minneapolis]] and [[Minnesota]], respectively. Norms were prepared by standardizing raw scores using a uniform [[t-score]] transformation, which was developed by [[Auke Tellegen]] and adopted for the MMPI-2. This technique preserves the positive skew of scores but also allows percentile comparison.<ref name="Butcher (1992)" />

Strengths of the MMPI-A include the use of adolescent norms, appropriate and relevant item content, inclusion of a shortened version, a clear and comprehensive manual,<ref name="Claiborn">Claiborn, C. D. (1995). [Review of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Adolescent.] In J. C. Conoley & J. C. Impara (Eds.), The twelfth mental measurements yearbook. Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.</ref> and strong evidence of validity.<ref>Lanyon, R. I. (1995). [Review of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Adolescent.] In J. C. Conoley & J. C. Impara (Eds.), The twelfth mental measurements yearbook. Lincoln, NE: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements.</ref><ref name="Merrell (2008)" />

Critiques of the MMPI-A include a non-representative clinical norms sample, overlap in what the clinical scales measure, irrelevance of the mf scale,<ref name="Claiborn" /> as well as long length and high reading level of the instrument.<ref name="Merrell (2008)" />

The MMPI-A is one of the most commonly used instruments among adolescent populations.<ref name= "Merrell (2008)" >Merrell, K. W. (2008). Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessment of Children and Adolescents, Third Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.</ref>

A restructured form of the MMPI-A, the [[MMPI-A-RF]] was published in 2016.