Why isn there a Thought Disturbance scale for girls?
When we factor analyzed the MAYSI-2 items, a factor arose for boys in which all five items in the factor seemed to refer to beliefs and feelings associated with thought disturbance (e.g., seeing and hearing things that others don’t, feelings of unreality, beliefs that others can control one’s thoughts). A factor arose for girls that also had the “seeing and hearing things” items in it, as well as three other items. But the other three items didn’t seem to have anything logically to do with thought disturbance. Rather than have a potentially unstable two-item scale for girls, we decided to go forward without a Thought Disturbance scale for girls. We do not know why the items in the boys’ factor did not appear in the girls’ factor. Certainly thought disturbances do appear among delinquent girls. Further research with other samples of girls might locate a set of items in the MAYSI-2 that suggest Thought Disturbance. But in the meantime, we cannot recommend using the boys’ Thought Disturba
