Graying of the critical items: Effects of aging on responding to MMPI-2 critical items

The relation between age and several critical item sets on the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) was examined. MMPI-2 protocols from veterans entering a Veterans Affairs domiciliary were obtained, and the number of Grayson critical items, Koss-Butcher critical items, Lachar-Wrobel critical items, and Caldwell critical items were tabulated. Another critical item set consisting of all items of the previously mentioned sets was also tabulated. This composite set was divided into a set that has items scored on Scales I, 2, and 3, and a second set of items that were not scored on those three scales. The effect of age on Scales L and K was also studied. A one-way analysis of variance confirmed that the number of endorsed critical items was significantly less in older age groups, and L and K increased. The implication is that endorsement of a critical item may have increased clinical significance as a person ages.