The efficacy of the MMPI-A in bullying forensic cases: Malingeringand psychological injury

Abstract

The efficacy of forensic evaluation of the psychological injury based on the MMPI-2 and a clinical interview has been continuously supported by literature. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of the efficacy of the MMPI for adolescents (MMPI-A) for bullying cases. To contrast the efficacy of the MMPI-A in bullying cases, 107 adolescents ranged from 14 to 18 years old (M = 14.85) endorsed the Spanish adaptation of the MMPI-A under standard and malingering instructions. The results showed a high adolescent ability (91.6% for posttraumatic stress disorder, ranging from 60 to 90% for comorbid posttraumatic stress disorders) to malinger both the direct (posttraumatic stress disorder) and indirect (depression, anxiety, psychosomatic problems, problems in interpersonal relationships) psychological injury. Four malingering strategies were identified in malingering protocols: indiscriminate symptom endorsement, symptom severity, obvious symptoms, and infrequent symptoms. The F, F1, F2 and K standard validity scales discriminated significantly and with a large effect size between genuine and malingered responding. Likewise, the F-K index and the L and K less than 45 and F less than 80 profile discriminated significantly and with a large effect size between genuine and malingered responding. The study of cases revealed excellent classification rates of the standard validity scales (K less than 40) and indices for malingered (true positives) and honest (false positives) responding. Implications for forensic practice are discussed.