Evaluating Measures of Externalizing Personality Pathology Traits in Black and White American Adolescents in a Program for at-Risk Youths

Abstract

The Personality Assessment Inventory-Adolescent (PAI-A; Morey et al., 2007 Morey, L. C. , Warner, M. B. , & Hopwood, C. J. (2007). The personality assessment inventory: Issues in legal and forensic settings. In A. M. Goldstein (Ed.), Forensic psychology: Emerging topics and expanding roles. Wiley. [Google Scholar] ) is a self-report measure of personality and psychopathology appropriate for use with individuals aged 12–18. It is modeled after the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991 Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory professional manual (2nd ed.). Psychological Assessment Resources. [Google Scholar] ), a measure widely used with adults in clinical and legal settings. The PAI-A assesses a variety of features that have utility in legal settings, including validity scales that assess approach to testing, clinical scales measuring common types of psychopathology, and treatment consideration scales that provide indicators of treatment motivation and other factors that may be important for predicting outcomes. The PAI-A has been included in a limited number of research studies and few of those have focused on justice-involved youths. Additionally, because juvenile court records are not typically publicly available, there is limited information about the PAI-A available in case law. This manuscript reviews the properties, strengths, and weaknesses of the PAI-A and its existing literature. Factors for mental health and legal professionals to consider in relation to the admissibility of this measure, questioning and cross-examination, and how the PAI-A may be received in court are also discussed.