Compared the standard MMPI and the MMPI-168 scores of 90 male delinquent adolescents. Raw score and T-score correlations were generally high and within acceptable limits, which indicates that MMPI-168 scores are useful with delinquent adolescents. However, two-point codetypes derived from standard MMPIs and MMPI-168s were in agreement less than half of the time. Caution should be exercised in the interpretation of twopoint codetypes from IbfMPI-168 raw scores.
This study examined the utility of the MMPI-168 with a population of delinquent adolescents. The MMPI-168 is one of the most useful short form MMPIs with adult populations (Ward, 1980) and has been shown to be useful with hospitalized adolescents when T-scores are derived from adolescent norms (Newmark & Thibodeau, 1979). Delinquent adolescents, with their impulsivity, easy distractibility and poor reading skills, pose special problems for assessment with long inventories such as the standard MMPI (Dahlstrom, Welsh, & Dahlstrom 1972). The present research was undertaken to assess the relationship between the much shorter MMPI-168 and standard MMPI scores.
METHOD Subjects and Procedure
Sixty-six male adjudicated delinquents in a residential treatment center and 39 male adjudicated delinquents in group home treatment were administered the 400 scored items of the MMPI. Ages of the residential delinquents ranged from 13 to 18 years (M = 15.86 years, SD = .74 years) and for the group home delinquents from 13 to 17 years (M = 15.47 years, SD = 1.17 years). MMPIs had been administered to all Ss within 2 weeks of admission for treatment.