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Intelligence testing of hospitalized, minority, inner-city children and adolescents: adjusting the standard for comparison
Dissertation

Intelligence testing of hospitalized, minority, inner-city children and adolescents: adjusting the standard for comparison

Stephen L. Soffer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Allegheny University of the Health Sciences
Aug 1996
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00003975
pdf
Soffer_Stephen_19966.03 MB
PDF Access upon request, Email title, URL, or DOI to archives@drexel.edu

Abstract

Considerable research has focused on intelligence tests to demonstrate that they are biased against children and adolescents in the cultural minority. However, according to comparative factor analytic, regression, and item-analysis research, cultural biases do not exist in intelligence tests (Hale, 1983; Meile, 1979; Naglieri, 1986; Reynolds & Gutkin, 1980; Sandoval, 1979). Despite these findings, there is a well established 15 point difference between the mean IQ scores of Caucasian and African American subjects (Manni, Winikur, & Keller, 1984). This discrepancy between Caucasian and African American scores on intelligence tests has resulted in the overrepresentation of African American children in special education classes, due to the reliance upon IQ scores for making placement decisions. The present study compared a sample of 204 inner-city, mostly minority children and adolescents on a psychiatric inpatient unit to the WISC-III national standardization sample. Results indicated that the present sample scored approximately 20 points below the WISC-III standardization sample on the Full Scale IQ score. Additionally, within the inpatient sample, it was found that Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic subjects did not differ on the Full Scale IQ score, but both Caucasian and Hispanic subjects earned higher mean Performance IQ scores than did African American subjects. Subjects with a diagnosis of ADHD attained significantly higher mean Full Scale IQ scores than subjects with either a Conduct Disorder/Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Mood Disorder diagnosis. Normative data tables were constructed for the African American and Hispanic subjects in the inpatient sample to provide an additional source of comparison data for evaluating the intelligence test scores of inner-city inpatient children and adolescents. Overall, the results established that inner-city children and adolescents on an inpatient psychiatry unit scored more than one standard deviation below the national average on the WISC-III, and indicated the importance of referring to other sources of data, in addition to IQ scores, when making placement decisions for these children.

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