The clinical utility of the MMPI-2 Antisocial Practices Content Scale

This study explored the ability of the MMPI-2 Antisocial Practices Content Scale (ASP) to correctly classify DSM-IV Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). ASP scores and scores on the MMPI-2 Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale were compared in an APD group (n = 10), a Borderline Personality Disorder group (n = 16), a Narcissistic Personality Disorder group (n = 9), an Other Personality Disorder group (representing personality disorders from Clusters A and C; n = 14), and a nonclinical population (NC; n = 67). The ASP exhibited an ability to differentiate APD from other personality disorders and was significantly correlated to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for APD while the Pd was not. Diagnostic efficiency statistics (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, negative predictive power, overall correct classification rate, and kappa) were calculated under four different conditions in a clinically relevant manner (Kessel & Zimmerman, 1993. Psychological Assessment, 53, 395-399). The results of this study illustrate the usefulness of the ASP as a tool for the assessment of antisocial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in individuals suspected of having APD. This information may be valuable to clinicians who are planning treatment or assessing treatment outcome for clients with APD.     

A comparison of African American and White American veteran MMPI-2 profiles

The present study compared a matched sample of 180 African American and 180 White American veterans who completed the MMPI-2 as a part of their evaluation while receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment. Findings indicated no significant multivariate or univariate effects associated with race on the basic validity and clinical scales, a significant multivariate effect but no significant univariate effects associated with race across the supplementary scales. Overall the two groups had very similar mean profiles across the basic validity, clinical, and supplementary scales. Comparison of the two groups on the content scales yielded a significant multivariate and significant univariate effects with African Americans scoring higher on the FRS, BIZ, CYN, and ASP scales. Because the two groups differed in terms of frequency and type of drug abuse, follow-up 2 x 2 univariate analyses of variance were conducted for the FRS, BIZ, CYN, and ASP content scales comparing participants classified in terms of presence or absence of a primary or secondary drug abuse diagnosis by race. A significant main effect associated with drug abuse was obtained for ASP. Results are discussed and considered in light of earlier research on the MMPI-2 and race. Content scale differences are also discussed in terms of possible differences in worldview.     

The salience of the family in antisocial and delinquent behaviors among Spanish adolescents

The authors examined the relations between self-report measures of parental support, communication, and psychological control and measures of antisocial and delinquent behavior in a sample of 641 Spanish adolescents (M age = 14.35 years, SD = 1.53 years). Findings revealed similarities in the relations between parenting processes and both measures of deviant behavior. The results also demonstrated the need for researchers to consider the parenting effects of mothers and fathers independently. Specifically, maternal support was a negative predictor of antisocial and delinquent behaviors of male adolescents, and maternal psychological control was a positive predictor of antisocial and delinquent behaviors of female adolescents. Paternal parenting efforts did not account for additional variability.     

The mothering of conduct problem and normal children in Spain and the USA: authoritarian and permissive asynchrony

Ninety-two clinic-referred and nonclinical mother-child dyads in Spain and the USA were observed in their home settings under naturalistic conditions for a total of 477 hours. Children in the clinic-referred dyads were considered troubled because of conduct problems. The observations were aimed at assessing two forms of mother-child asynchrony, either of which was expected to differentiate clinic referred from nonclinical dyads. Authoritarian asynchrony was defined as a mother's indiscriminate use of aversive reactions to her child, whereas the permissive form entailed indiscriminate positive reactions. Results showed the American mothers to generate more permissive asynchrony, whereas the Spanish mothers were inclined in the authoritarian direction. Only authoritarian asynchrony differentiated the clinical versus nonclinical dyads in each country. Discussion was centered on the greater salience of aversive as opposed to positive maternal attention, and cultural differences between countries that might have accounted for the different parenting styles.     

Assessing depression with the MMPI and MMPI-2

The usefulness of the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1951 ) and MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) for diagnosing and assessing symptomatic depression has been the subject of considerable debate for a number of years. In this article, we review the relative contributions of the MMPI and MMPI-2 clinical and content scales in predicting depression. Positive predictive power, negative predictive power, and overall classification rate were computed for Scale 2 (D) of the MMPI and MMPI-2 and the Depression content scale (DEP) of the MMPI-2. Scale 2 (D) of both the MMPI and MMPI-2 appears to be moderately accurate in predicting depression. Although some studies suggest that the content scale DEP provides incremental validity over Scale 2 (D) of the MMPI-2, the results of this review indicate that the content scale DEP of the MMPI-2 does not exceed the diagnostic efficiency of Scale 2 in predicting depression.     

Parenting Behavior and Cognitions in a Community Sample of Mothers with and without Symptoms of Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Although attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults has recently emerged as an important area of research, little attention has been given to the family functioning of women with ADHD, particularly in their role as mothers. We examined parenting self-esteem, locus of control, and disciplinary styles in a community sample of mothers with varying levels of ADHD symptoms. Women with high levels of ADHD symptoms reported more occupational and psychiatric problems than women with lower levels of ADHD symptoms. They also reported lower parenting self-esteem, a more external parenting locus of control, and less effective disciplinary styles. The findings suggest that women with ADHD symptoms may face a number of difficulties within the parenting domain.     

Differences between fathers and mothers in the treatment of, and relationship with, their teenage children: perceptions of Chinese adolescents

Chinese adolescents' perceptions of differences between mothers and fathers in parenting styles, parent-adolescent communication (frequency and related feelings), and quality of the parent-adolescent relationship were assessed via questionnaires and individual interviews. Fathers, as compared with mothers, were perceived to be less responsive, less demanding, to demonstrate less concern, but to be more harsh, and paternal parenting was less liked. There was less communication with fathers, and adolescents reported more negative feelings when communicating with fathers than with mothers. They evaluated the father-adolescent relationship more negatively than they did the mother-adolescent relationship. Adolescent females, as compared with males, perceived their parents to be more demanding but less harsh. Parenting characteristics were rated less favorably across time.     

Are Mindful Parents More Authoritative and Less Authoritarian? An Analysis of Clinic-Referred Mothers

Forty clinic-referred mothers completed questionnaires describing their children’s problems, the mothers’ parenting styles, and their everyday mindfulness. Psychometric analyses of the questionnaires showed mother reports to be internally consistent, except for one of the parenting style scales (i.e., permissive style). We dropped the scale and analyzed intercorrelations between the remaining two scales, the mindfulness measure and the child problem measure. Results showed the authoritative and authoritarian scales were not correlated, and each scale covaried with measures of mindfulness and child problems. Regression analyses revealed two pathways between mothers’ mindfulness and child problems. Both pathways showed parenting styles to mediate the connections between mothers’ mindfulness and their perceptions of child problems. We speculated on the nature of the mediating process.     

Replicated Findings and Future Directions for Intergenerational Studies: Closing Comments

This commentary summarizes findings from four papers that set out to replicate, albeit not with identical measures or sampling criteria, research on several questions in the multigenerational study of antisocial behavior by children and child-rearing strategies by parents. The weight of the evidence from our studies indicates some degree of intergenerational continuity in behavior. We observed that adjacent generations G1 and G2 are similar with respect to their styles of parenting and that adjacent generations G2 and G3 are similar with respect to antisocial behavior. In addition, the G2 parent's parenting style plays an important role in mediating or transferring the risk of antisocial behavior across the generations. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

An exploration of the impact of invalid MMPI-2 protocols on collateral self-report measure scores

Although a number of studies have examined the impact of invalid MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 2001) response styles on MMPI-2 scale scores, limited research has specifically explored the effects that such response styles might have on conjointly administered collateral self-report measures. This study explored the potential impact of 2 invalidating response styles detected by the Validity scales of the MMPI-2, overreporting and underreporting, on scores of collateral self-report measures administered conjointly with the MMPI-2. The final group of participants included in analyses was 1,112 college students from a Midwestern university who completed all measures as part of a larger study. Results of t-test analyses suggested that if either over- or underreporting was indicated by the MMPI-2 Validity scales, the scores of most conjointly administered collateral measures were also significantly impacted. Overall, it appeared that test-takers who were identified as either over- or underreporting relied on such a response style across measures. Limitations and suggestions for future study are discussed.     

MMPI-2 profiles of women at risk for child abuse

This study addresses the utility of the MMPI-2 in assessing personality characteristics of women who have a high potential for abusing their children. A sample of 154 women was identified on the basis of demographic characteristics as high risk for child abuse and other care-taking problems. They were evaluated (with the MMPI-2-AX form) during their pregnancy and are being followed up as part of the evaluation of a prevention/intervention program. This preliminary study compares the MMPI-2 personality characteristics of 146 of these women with several control samples: 1,462 women from the MMPI restandardization sample, 466 low education women from the restandardization sample, 84 pregnant women from the restandardization sample, and 167 women military recruits who are about the same age as the experimental group. The results show that, on the MMPI-2 clinical scales, women from the high-risk sample closely resemble child-abusing parents described in the previous MMPI literature. Moreover, these women differed significantly from all of the comparison groups on a number of MMPI-2 clinical and content scales. The clinical implications of these differences are discussed.     

Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior

There is a strong assumption of intergenerational continuity in behavior patterns, including antisocial behavior. Using a 3-generation, prospective study design, we examine the level of behavioral continuity between Generation 2 (G2) and Generation 3 (G3), and the role of economic disadvantage and parenting behaviors as mediating links. We estimate separate models for G2 fathers and G2 mothers. Data are drawn from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study begun in 1988 during G2's early adolescence (n = 1,000), which has collected prospective data on G2, their parents (G1), and now their G3 children. Results show that intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior is evident, albeit somewhat modest. Parenting styles and financial stress do play a mediating role, although their effects vary by G2's gender. In general, adolescent delinquency plays a larger role in linking the generations for G2 fathers, whereas parenting behaviors and financial stress play a larger role for G2 mothers.     

Parenting stress and marital relationship as determinants of mothers' and fathers' parenting

Using the actor–partner interdependence model, we explore how various sources of stress and support experienced by fathers and mothers influence their own parenting styles and the parenting styles of the partner. Data from 227 couples were analyzed, with mothers and fathers rating their parenting stress and marital relationship and children rating the parenting styles of both mothers and fathers. Structural equation models revealed actor effects of parenting stress on demanding and responsive parenting styles, as well as partner effects between positive aspects of marital relationship and responsive parenting style. The results further indicate that the strength of these pathways is similar for both mothers and fathers and do not support the hypothesis that the parenting of fathers is more vulnerable than the parenting of mothers.     

Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.     

Assessing posttraumatic stress disorder with the MMPI-2 in a sample of workplace accident victims

In this study, the predictive capacity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Keane (MMPI-2 PK) scale was examined in a sample of trauma victims who experienced a serious workplace-related accident and subsequent injury. In keeping with a number of previous investigations, the PK scale was largely ineffective in identifying posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) beyond overall symptom and functional severity. In contrast, sets of clinical and content scales proved to be significant predictors of PTSD. These findings suggest that the PK scale is not particularly useful in detecting PTSD in civilian trauma samples. Clinicians might be best advised to use the MMPI-2 clinical and content scales in their assessment of PTSD in civilian patients presenting with a history of trauma.     

Clinic-Referred Mothers’ Autobiographical Narratives as Markers of Their Parenting Styles

Forty clinic-referred mothers completed questionnaires describing their children’s problems and the mothers’ parenting styles. In addition, each mother told three stories about their personal experiences in child care and one story about being cared for in their families of origin. Each story was transcribed and rated for coherence on six dimensions describing narrative clarity and richness. Results showed the narrative ratings to be fairly reliable and internally consistent, and the questionnaires proved to be psychometrically sound except for one of the parenting style scales that we dropped from further data analyses. Results showed the two remaining scales (authoritative and authoritarian styles) covaried with mothers’ reports about problems with their children. Correlations between mothers’ narrative coherence scores and their parenting style scores showed mixed results: authoritative style was not correlated with narrative coherence, but authoritarian style was negatively correlated with this narrative measure. Regression analyses using the six coherence scales and the authoritarian style scale showed the causality scale to account for most of the variance in authoritarian style. We speculated on the nature of this latter covariation.     

MMPI-2 typology of pregnant drug-dependent women in treatment

The present study examined the validity of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) typology for pregnant drug-dependent women. A 3-cluster solution based on 7 MMPI-2 clinical scales emerged as the best model and was replicated across split-half samples and different primary substance-use diagnoses and treatment modalities. The 3 subtypes identified included Type I (n = 40, 24%) with no clinical elevation, Type II (n = 72, 42%) with elevated psychopathic deviate scale, and Type III (n = 58, 34%) with elevations on all 7 scales. Analyses with interview and self-report measures showed good concurrent validity. Type II had higher retention than Type I and Type III across methadone and medication-free treatments, showing some predictive validity. An a priori method for classifying new cases on the basis of the proposed typology was developed and validated. Study findings support MMPI-2's use with pregnant drug-dependent women for assessment and possibly treatment planning.     

Differentiating overreporting and extreme distress: MMPI-2 use with compensation-seeking veterans with PTSD

This purpose of this study was to examine overreporting on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) in compensation-seeking veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A sample of veterans tested during a V.A. hospital compensation and pension exam were given the MMPI-2 and measures of PTSD, depression, and combat exposure. Veteran's MMPI-2s were only included in the analyses if their profile was extremely exaggerated, as measured by an F scale T score above 80, did not elevate the MMPI-2 VRIN and TRIN scales, and had a primary diagnosis of PTSD (n = 127). Using the Infrequency-Psychopathology, F(p), scale to distinguish overreporting from distress, it was found that 98 veterans elevated profiles due to distress, whereas 29 elevated due to overreporting, F(p) below and above 7, respectively. Differences between groups on MMPI-2 clinical scales and the other measures were assessed. Implications of these findings for assessing veteran response style and using the MMPI-2 with a PTSD population are discussed.     

Depressive Symptoms in African-American Women

This project examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms in an African-American female college student sample. Concordance rates between two of the most widely used psychometric instruments in clinical settings, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, revised edition (MMPI-2; Hathway & McKinley, 1967) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mack, & Erbaugh, 1961), were examined. Results revealed that the MMPI-2 was a more conservative scale than the BDI in identifying depressive symptom levels. Both scales, however, identified 12% to 18% of the sample as experiencing severe symptoms. Results were interpreted in light of the stress model of depression. Participants who experienced many symptoms also had high levels of anxiety and passive coping styles. One significant covariate in this sample was mother's education level. Participants whose mothers had college experience had fewer depressive symptoms than their first-generation college-experience peers. Results were interpreted in light of the possible ways mothers inoculate their daughters from stressful environments because of their experiences and possible ways to use this process to assist first-generation college students.