Examining Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) scale scores in a transgender and gender diverse sample.

Abstract

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals are at increased risk of various forms of psychopathology. Little research has been conducted with broadband measures of psychopathology and TGD individuals. The present study sought to examine how TGD individuals scored on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) scales. This included MMPI-2-RF profiles from 85 TGD individuals; 37 were in mental health treatment and 48 of which were not. This study involved three sets of pairwise comparisons on MMPI-2-RF substantive scales via t-tests: (a) TGD individuals not in treatment versus the MMPI-2-RF normative sample, (v) TGD individuals not in treatment versus TGD individuals in treatment, and (c) TGD individuals in treatment versus a large outpatient clinical sample. Compared to the MMPI-2-RF normative sample, TGD individuals not in treatment scored significantly higher on 31 of the MMPI-2-RF substantive scales. Compared to those TGD individuals not in treatment, those in treatment had significantly higher scores on several MMPI-2-RF scales, primarily those of internalizing psychopathology. In the final comparison between TGD individuals in treatment and an outpatient clinical sample, the TGD individuals had some significantly higher and significantly lower scores on MMPI-2-RF substantive scales. Implications regarding minority stress and the current findings are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis study found that transgender and gender diverse individuals scored meaningfully higher on several self-report scales measuring psychopathology. Implications are such that transgender and gender diverse individuals experience a greater degree of psychological distress and somatic and cognitive complaints particularly in a nonclinical sample compared to a normative sample.

Exploring the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-3 in a transgender and gender diverse sample.

“…We expected the treatment-receiving TGD sample to score higher than the non-treatment-receiving TGD sample on a fairly broad range of MMPI-3 scales, reflecting the expected sensitivity of MMPI-3 scores to various domains of psychological difficulties potentially experienced by clinically engaged TGD individuals. Consistent with Bryant et al (2021) findings, we expected fewer and lower magnitude differences between the treatment-receiving TGD sample and the community mental health sample.…”

“…Data reported in the present study were all collected during the late 2010s, which eliminates the potential impact of normative shifts and era of testing effects for unconfounded comparisons of the samples. The TGD sample is the same one reported by Bryant et al (2021). For both studies, the expanded version of the MMPI-2-RF (the MMPI-2-RF-EX), which included all of the MMPI-2-RF and all of the MMPI-3 items, was administered to the TGD sample.…”

“…However, Bryant et al (2021) MMPI-2-RF study had an inherent confound in that the data sets used in that investigation were collected at different points in time: the MMPI-2-RF normative data were collected in the mid-1980s, the community mental health data in the early 1990s, and the TGD sample in the late 2010s. Consequently, it was not possible to determine whether, and to what extent, differences between the community TGD sample and the MMPI-2-RF normative sample, collected more than 30 years apart, may reflect the sequalae of gender minority stress versus cohort effects.…”

“…To address the confound just noted, our objective in the current investigation was to replicate Bryant et al (2021) study using the most up-to-date version of the MMPI, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2020a) and concurrently collected samples. As a first step, we sought to establish the reliability and validity of MMPI-3 scores in a community-based TGD sample, using the entire TGD sample in these analyses to maximize statistical power.…”

“…After establishing the psychometric properties of the MMPI-3 with this sample, we replicated Bryant et al (2021) comparisons between non-treatment-receiving TGD individuals, treatment-receiving TGD individuals, the MMPI-3 normative sample, and a presumably cisgender-dominant sample of treatment-receiving individuals in a CMHC. Based on gender MST and research as well as the findings reported by Bryant et al (2021), we expected the non-treatment-receiving TGD sample to score higher than the normative sample on measures of internalizing psychopathology and somatic or cognitive concerns.…”