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Abstract
A significant number of youths involved in the juvenile justice system have experienced childhood maltreatment and/or grief and loss. The mental health consequences of such events may have contributed to the development of the mental health and behavioral problems that resulted in juvenile court involvement. As such, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A), the most commonly used assessment measure among forensic psychologists working with this population, should be evaluated for its utility in identifying youths whose mental health and behavioral problems may be related to such traumatic events. This study aimed to determine if adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system that experienced childhood maltreatment and/or grief and loss have demonstrated consistent differences in item-level responses on the MMPI-A compared to those who did not endorse experiencing such traumatic events. Additionally, the study sought to evaluate whether identified items could be used in a scale that alerts the clinician to the likelihood of a history of trauma exposure, specifically childhood maltreatment and/or grief and loss. Results suggest that juvenile offenders with a history of trauma exposure do respond differently on particular MMPI-A items compared to those without such a history. The results also suggest that it may be possible to develop a scale that aids in differentiating between the juvenile offenders who endorse a history of childhood maltreatment and/or grief and loss and those who deny such experiences. The potential scale developed in this study can be utilized in settings where the MMPI-A is administered with juvenile offenders to alert clinicians to the possibility of a history of trauma, specifically childhood maltreatment and/or grief and loss.