"Mental imbalance" and the prediction of recurrent delinquent behavior

Cognitive and personality patterns of 84 court-referred adolescents were examined to identify predictors of recurrent delinquent behavior. Continued behavioral problems at follow-up were more likely in adolescents with discrepancies between Verbal and Performance IQ or large differences between "neurotic" and "psychotic" scale elevations on the MMPI. Positive outcomes were most likely for adolescents who could be described as "mildly neurotic." Combining the discrepancy scores from the intelligence and personality tests with other background variables in a Bayesian conditional probability model resulted in accurate predictions of later behavior for 81% of the sample. These findings suggest that imbalances in cognitive and personality development may limit a delinquent adolescent's ability to interact appropriately with the environment.