As the populations of Western countries become more diverse, the risk of inaccurately generalizing knowledge from majority ethnic groups to minority groups is increasing. However, few of the measures used in forensic assessment are based on normative samples that represent the considerable diversity present in forensic settings. This study examined 4 commonly used measures of feigning: the Dot Counting Test (DCT; Boone, Lu, & Herzberg, 2002); the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms (M-FAST; Miller, 2001); the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM; Tombaugh, 1996); and a validity scale (atypical responding; ATR) on the Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 (Briere, 2011). The study compared performance on these measures of feigning among 3 groups of African immigrants: honest participants with and without posttraumatic stress disorder, and participants asked to feign distressrelated symptoms. The data were used to assess the classification accuracy of each measure and the effect of demographic and cultural variables. Three of the 4 measures (M-FAST, TOMM, and ATR) significantly differentiated between participants asked to respond honestly and those asked to feign, although no measure produced higher than moderate classification accuracy. The M-FAST and DCT produced high false positive rates in the honest groups, ranging from 33% to 63%. Surprisingly, demographic and cultural variables were not significantly associated with test scores. The results emphasize the need for future related research. © 2016 American Psychological Association.

Immigrant Malingering Feigning Cross-cultural validity forensic assessment

Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Dot Counting Test feigning Trauma Symptom Inventory 2 test of memory malingering classification accuracy educational status validity malingering immigrant cross cultural validity demography human sex difference middle aged validation process statistics and numerical data Stress, Psychological mental stress controlled study comparative study Aged African ethnology Young Adult Humans migrant psychology study design Adolescent Black person male Emigrants and Immigrants African Continental Ancestry Group female Behavior reproducibility Harvard Trauma Questionnaire questionnaire Reproducibility of Results false positive result cultural factor clinical article Article diagnosis adult posttraumatic stress disorder Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic age distribution accuracy behavior assessment exposure trauma exposure