An investigation of the psychometric properties of the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) scales with mental health inpatients.

In this study, we compared the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of the MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 2001; Tellegen et al., 2003) Restructured Clinical (RC) scales and corresponding MMPI-2 non-K-corrected Clinical scales in a sample of 280 men and 264 women admitted to inpatient psychiatric units. We evaluated the internal psychometric properties of the RC and Clinical scales by intercorrelation analyses and alpha coefficients. We investigated external correlates of scores from the RC and Clinical scales using selected chart variables, selected Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (Derogatis, 1983, 1994) items, and clinician ratings on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (Overall & Gorham, 1988). Results showed psychometric support for the RC scales in terms of improved intercorrelation patterns and comparable or greater alpha coefficients. Further, external correlational analyses revealed varying degrees of evidence of improvement in convergent and discriminant validity.