Previous research has shown that stimulus pull is one of the contributory factors influencing Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of studies examining this. In particular, the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G) has been employed to examine stimulus pull in adult clinical and nonclinical samples. The present study is the first attempt to examine this issue in a nonclinical sample of children. Ninety-eight children from Italian elementary (1st to 5th grade) and middle (6th to 8th grade) schools provided narratives to six TAT cards (1, 2, 3BM, 4, 8BM, and 16). Some important findings with regard to variance within scales replicate prior findings from other studies. Furthermore, some findings regarding the specific nature of pull for particular TAT cards (1, 2, 3BM, and 4) replicate prior work. Given that Cards 8BM and 16's SCORS-G stimulus properties have not been previously studied, the pull of these cards is explored. Last, SCORS-G differences/similarities across these two age groups are highlighted. Suggestions for further research in this field are also provided, particularly concerning the use of SCORS-G and TAT for clinical assessment.

In recent years, several studies have addressed the issue of positive self-presentation bias in assessing parents involved in postdivorce child custody litigations. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is widely used in forensic assessments and is able to evaluate positive self-presentation through its Superlative Self-Presentation S scale. We investigated the existence of a gender effect on positive self-presentation bias in an Italian sample of parents involved in court evaluation. Participants were 391 divorced parents who completed the full 567-item Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 during child custody evaluations ordered by several Italian courts between 2006 and 2010. Our analysis considered the S scale along with the basic clinical scales. North-American studies had shown no gender differences in child custody litigations. Differently, our results showed a significantly higher tendency toward “faking-good” profiles on the MMPI-2 among Italian women as compared to men and as compared to the normative Italian female population. Cultural and social factors could account for these differences.

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