Defensive responding on the MMPI-2 in family custody and access evaluations.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine defensive underreporting on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) with a sample of parents involved in custody dispute litigation. With a composite score derived from 2 nontraditional validity indicators-the Wiggins Social Desirability scale (WSD) and the Superlative scale (S), which had previously been identified as the best predictors of fake-good responding, 74% of litigants were identified as underreporting compared with 52% identified using traditional Lie (L) and Correction (K) scale criterion. Litigants identified as underreporters, whether using either the WSD-S criterion or the L-K criterion, had clinical scale profiles that were similar to those identified as nonunderreporters. The outcome of this study suggests that the WSD and S scales are perhaps more useful in the identification of defensive underreporting than the L and K scales.