A study on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent scores based on Marcia Identity Statuses in adolescents

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Faculty of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Tehran Psychiatry Institute, Iran University of Medical sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of family institute, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

 Introduction: Considering the important role of identity formation in adolescents and the ensuing problems that can pave the way for psychopathology in the next developmental stages, the present study attempts to study the personality profile of teenagers in different identity statuses using Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A)
 Materials and Methods: The current study employs a cross-sectional ex-post facto method. All high-school and pre-university level students in Tehran constituted the population of the present study. Multi-stage clustering method was used for sampling. The population of the study comprised of 506 students (273 female and 276 male students) who were selected randomly from four districts of Tehran. They were asked to answer the questions of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS version 18 and descriptive statistics.
 Results: The mean scores for all subscales in all identity statuses and in all areas proved to be normal. Only the paranoia subscale in female students who were in Identity moratorium status was in gray area (T scores between 60 and 65). Although it is not clinically significant, it may lead to some potential problems.
 Conclusion: Our findings showed that the personality profile of the population in identity statuses of Identity foreclosure, Identity moratorium, and Identity diffusion were normal. As predicted by Archer (2005), this test (MMPI-A) can distinguish between normal and pathological ranges considering identity crises issues in adolescents and the problems they commonly deal with.

Keywords

Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health
Volume 17, Issue 6 - Serial Number 6
November and December 2015
Pages 292-299

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