Development and preliminary validation of the MMPI-2 scale for same-sex priest child molesters

Priests with the disorder of same-sex ephebophilia were investigated, with the purpose of constructing and validating an MMPI-2 scale. The authors performed an item-level analysis, comparing priests in evaluation for same-sex ephebophilia (N = 100) to priests in evaluation for non-sexual psychiatric disorders (N = 100) and the MMPI-2 normative sample of men (N = 1138). The comparison resulted in a pool of 23 items. Cross-validation with another sample of same-sex priest ephebophiles (N = 38) and priest psychiatric controls (N = 40) indicated that the 23 items successfully discriminated the two groups. The 23-item scale was then further reduced to enhance its discriminatory power. Authors also used a one-way ANOVA to discriminate priest ephebophiles (N = 100) from priest pedophiles (N = 31). Results indicated that the MMPI-2 did not discriminate these groups.