MMPI scale clinical correlates for adolescent inpatients

This study examined descriptive correlates of single-scale, high-point elevations for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales D, Hy, Pd, Sc, and Ma in a sample of 112 adolescent inpatients undergoing psychiatric treatment. Clinical descriptors were collected for subjects based on their psychometric self-reports and on ratings and evaluations of these patients by parents, nursing staff, and individual psychotherapists. Subjects were assigned to a high-point category based on their highest, single clinical scale elevation, with the restrictions that such elevations be greater than or equal to T-score values of 65 and that high-point groups contain a minimum of 10 subjects. Clinical descriptors for subjects in each high-point group were compared to descriptors for all remaining subjects by means of chi-square, Fisher's Exact Test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques. Findings were interpreted in terms of their general consistency with descriptors derived for these MMPI scales in the adult literature.