Are there ethnic group differences in MAYSI-2 scores?
This question requires several answers. First, sometimes one finds differences between ethnic groups in the degree of internal consistency (reliability) of items or subscales. In the Massachusetts sample and a California Youth Authority sample, the differences of this type for non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and African-American youths were so small that they did not seem important. Second, in the Massachusetts study, we did find some differences in mean MAYSI-2 scale scores between various ethnic groups, but only for boys and only on a few of the scales. For example, African-American boys as a group were somewhat lower on Angry-Irritable, Alcohol/Drug Use, and Depressed-Anxious than one or another of the other ethnic groups. Take a look at pp. 60-61 of the MAYSI-2 manual for a discussion of those differences and the various reasons they might occur. For example, such differences don’t necessarily mean that the MAYSI-2 is less valid for some ethnic groups than for others. In addition, it
