Factor analysis of the McCarthy scales for groups of white and Mexican-American children

Factor analyses of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (McCarthy Scales) were performed on separate groups of Anglo (N = 186) and Mexican-American (N = 126) children to determine the comparability of underlying structures and to examine the construct validity of the McCarthy Scales for each ethnic group. The subjects, ranging in age from 5.6 to 7.6 years, were randomly selected from school enrollment rosters and stratified by age, sex, and ethnicity. A principal component analysis produced three factors for the Anglo as well as the Mexican-American groups. Examination of the coefficients of congruence indicated a close similarity among the matching factors. Additionally, the factors which emerged for the Anglos and Mexican-Americans corresponded to the scales constituting the McCarthy Scales. The results of the study provide evidence for the construct validity of the McCarthy Scales for children of two ethnic groups.     

Joint factor analysis of the K-ABC and McCarthy Scales

A joint-factor analysis was conducted using three major scales of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities and eight Kaufman-ABC sub-tests as variables. Subjects were 90 children ages 4 to 8 1/2 yr. The screen test produced three significant factors, each interpretable from the Kaufman-ABC model. McCarthy Verbal scale was closely associated with the Achievement/Verbal factor; McCarthy Perceptual performance scale loaded highly on the Simultaneous Processing dimension; and McCarthy Quantitative was associated with all three factors. These results provide useful guidelines for interpreting a child's performance on each Index of the McCarthy scales in terms of the mental processing approach used to solve the task. However, the psychometric results must be coordinated with the examiner's clinical observations of the child's problem-solving strategies during administration of the McCarthy scales to understand more completely the processing demands of the Verbal, Perceptual performance, and Quantitative Scales.     

Three-year stability of WISC-R factor scores for black and white, female and male children classified as learning-disabled

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) test and retest scores for a homogeneous sample (N=322) of approximately equal numbers of black and white, female and male learning-disabled children were compared over 3 years for factor structure and factor structure stability. These analyses were also conducted with a subsample (N=229) of the total sample for whom Digit Span scores were available. The socioeconomic status of children in the sample was determined by parents' occupation. The results suggested that WISC-R factor structure was stable over 3 years. Two-and three-factor solutions were found for the total group; three factors were found when Digit Span was included in the analysis. Coefficients of congruence indicated factorial similarity between groups of black and white, female and male children classified as learning-disabled.     

Color preference for black and white by infants and young children

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a preference for the color white was present in infants and young children. A color preference test was administered to 160 subjects who ranged in age from 6 mo. to 4.5 yr. Data were obtained from a 120-item test in which 12 different pairs of toys were presented to each subject. The toys in each pair were identical except that one was black and the other was white. The toy the subject selected was considered the subject's preference and the color of that toy was recorded. Statistical analysis did not support existing literature, refuting the published idea that white preference is a general quality in all human beings.     

WISC-R and K-ABC comparison for matched samples of black and white children

The present study examined the performance of matched pairs of black and white fourth and fifth grade males and females on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). A total of 86 whites (40 males and 46 females) and 86 blacks (40 males and 46 females) were individually matched on age, gender, school, and socioeconomic status. The scores are as follows: the mean WISC-R Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) for blacks was 92.3 (SD=11.6) and for whites was 101.3 (SD=11.6) and the mean K-ABC Mental Processing Composite score (MPC) for blacks was 91.5 (SD=10.1) and for whites was 97.5 (SD=10.6). These findings suggest that black children will likely earn very similar WISC-R FSIQ and K-ABC MPC mean scores. Additionally, Kaufman and Kaufman's conclusion that use of the K-ABC reduces the difference between black and white levels of intelligence by one half in comparison with values found using the WISC-R was not supported.     

Screening for psychopathology in groups of black and white prison inmates by means of the MMPI

Of 225 male offenders who were administered both the MMPI and a structured diagnostic interview, the Psychiatric Diagnostic Interview (PDI), 51 (25 blacks, 26 whites) earned highly elevated MMPI profiles (at least one clinical scale greater than or equal to T score of 90) and 46 (26 blacks, 20 whites) achieved profiles that were essentially within normal limits (all clinical scales less than T score of 70). It was noted that the concordance between the MMPI and the total number of PDI syndromes reported by inmates was significantly greater in the white group (classification accuracy = 96%) relative to the black group (classification accuracy = 71%). However, both the black and white hit rates were found to significantly improved upon chance.     

The factor structure of the Vocational Preference Inventory for black and white college students

This study investigated whether the variables measured by the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) were the same for both black and white students. Kaiser et al. (1969) have noted that the same measurements used with different populations may not measure the same variables and have presented a method of determining the degree of correspondence in the two populations. In the present study, the VPI scores for a group of black students and a group of white students were factor analyzed separately and the black structure was rotated to correspond to the white structure. The correspondence between the variables measured by the VPI for black and white students was found to be very similar. This is to say that the VPI measures the same variables for both black and white college students.     

Assessment of cognitive deficiency with the McCarthy Scales and Stanford-Binet: a correlational analysis.

The present study tested matched samples of 15 retarded and 15 normal children on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. Pearson correlations between Stanford-Binet IQs and the six McCarthy Scale Indexes for retarded subjects were lower than coefficients obtained from the normal subjects and from previous research. While the General Cognitive Index may be interchangeable with IQ in the Normal range of intellectual functioning, this relationship was not found for the retarded subjects in the present study. The "venerable" Stanford-Binet retains its position as the most broadly applicable measure of intellectual functioning. Implications of the study as well as an outline for future research were included.     

Factor structure of the McCarthy scales for school-age children with low GCIs

This study aimed to cross-validate the factor analysis of the McCarthy Scales and to determine the construct validity of these scales for children who score one standard deviation below the normative mean on general cognitive ability. The sample was comprised of 77 children aged 6 to $\text{8}\text{1}\text{2}$ with a mean General Cognitive Index (GCI) of 61.6. Principal factor analysis produced four meaningful factors which corresponded closely to four of the scales on McCarthy's battery. The present findings discourage the interpretation of the Quantitative Scale for school-age children with GCIs below 84. Other implications of the results for the interpretation of McCarthy profiles for low-scoring school-aged children are discussed.     

Improving aural comprehension in white and in black children pictures versus print

A total of 128 fourth-grade children verified assertions about three prose passages they had heard. Half of the children were white, from high-status families, and half were black, from low-status families. Within each sample, an independent-groups design was used to appraise the effect of two presentation conditions under each of two conditions of testing. Oral renditions of each passage were accompanied by either pictorial illustrations of text information or printed versions of the text. Previous research on paired-associate learning suggested the hypothesis that pictorial augmentation would be more effective than print. The results confirmed this hypothesis across both populations and both conditions of testing, regardless of the type of assertion verified.     

Comparison of WISC and WISC-R scores of referred black,white and Latino children

Seventy-two school psychologists in the tri-state area of Michigan, Illinois and Ohio administered both the WISC and WISC-R to 164 black, white and Latino children in a counterbalanced order with a specific test-retest interval of not less than a week or more than a month. These children had been referred to the school psychologist because of concerns about their intellectual ability. Significant WISC/WISC-R differences were found, with the WISC-R yielding lower results. These results have implications for test users, special education programs, and mainstreaming efforts.     

Level I and level II abilities in Asian,white, and black children

All the Asian-American, white, and black children in grades 2 through 6 in a California school district were given a battery of tests including measures of IQ, scholastic achievement, and short-term memory. Factor analysis of the tests yielded two main factors identified as Level I (memory) and Level II (general intelligence) in Jensen's system. The three ethnic groups were compared with one another on uncorrelated Level I and Level II factor scores. At every grade level, bivariate means of the three groups occupy distinctly different quadrants in the factor space. Asians and whites differ on Level I (A < W) but not on Level II. Asians and blacks differ on Level II (A > B) but not on Level I. Whites and blacks differ (W > B) on both Levels I and II, but the white-black difference on Level I is less than one fourth as large as the white-black difference on Level II. A similar pattern of group differences is found for scores on tests of memory and nonverbal IQ. Scholastic achievement shows much smaller correlations with the Level I than with the Level II factor.     

Stability of the factor structure of Barrat's Impulsivity Scales for children across cultures: a comparison of Spain and Colombia

Despite the great importance of impulsivity in many childhood and adolescence disorders, there are few self-reports on child impulsivity. Recently, a modified version of Barratt's BIS-11 questionnaire adapted for children has been developed, which may be useful in assessing this personality dimension. The present study reports an adaptation of this questionnaire in a different culture (Colombia) and assesses the degree of convergence between the factor structures of both adaptations using consensus oblimin rotation. The results indicate not only that the factor structure of the test remains stable across both adaptations, and that two of the three scales in the Colombian version show acceptable reliabilities, but also that cultural and linguistic issues are important in test adaptation even when the same language is used.