A comparison of MMPI-2 validity in African American and Caucasian psychiatric inpatients

This study investigated ethnic differences on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) in 229 African American and 1,558 Caucasian psychiatric inpatients. Mean differences were found on several MMPI-2 validity and clinical scales. These were generally consistent with differences between the groups, indicated by the available extratest criterion data. To identify potential bias, the authors conducted 65 step-down hierarchical multiple regression analyses, predicting conceptually relevant clinical criteria from either MMPI-2 clinical or content scales for each gender. A number of MMPI-2 scales evidenced bias reflecting minor underprediction of psychopathology in African Americans. It is important to note that, in almost all cases, the magnitude of these differences was small and not clinically significant.