Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

Although impulsivity has come to play a major role in defining childhood behavior problems, there is little agreement as to the definition, validity, and measurement of the construct. The purpose of this study was to investigate the inter-relationships among five measures of impulsivity appropriate for use with preschool children. Participants in the study were 39 children ranging in age from 46 to 62 months. Measures included the Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers, the Mazes Subtest of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, the Goodman Lock Box, the Preschool Rating Scale, and the Temperament Assessment Battery for Children. The two teacher rating scales were highly correlated, but few significant relationships were obtained among the performance measures or between teacher ratings and performance measures.

The present investigation examined the neuropsychological constructs that underlie the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Data from administrations of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HRNB) and WISC-R were gathered for 1,079 learning-disabled children. A multiple regression analysis was employed to examine the contribution of each HRNB measure in the prediction of individual WISC-R subtests. Overall, verbal auditory discrimination presented as the most salient underlying construct of the WISC-R Verbal subtests, followed by concept formation and nonverbal auditory discrimination. Neuropsychological measures of the HRNB that involved perceptual organization were found to play a key role in defining the underlying constructs of the WISC-R Performance subtests. Similar to the above procedure, a second analysis was performed to assess the neuropsychological underpinnings of Kaufman's three factors (Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, and Freedom from Distractibility). Of the three factors, the HRNB measures explained similar amounts in the Freedom from Distractability (21%) and the Perceptual Organization (20.9%) factors in contrast to the Verbal Comprehension (7.3 %0) factor. Overall, these results indicate an interrelationship among several basic neuropsychological processes and higher-level cognitive functioning as represented on the WISC-R.

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Prescriptive Reading Performance Test, and a modification of the Analytic Reading Inventory were administered to a sample of nonexceptional, elementary-aged children to determine whether performance on the subscales of the K-ABC was associated with decoding and comprehension scores on the reading measures. While the Sequential Scale was found to be related significantly to decoding and even to comprehension of text written in standard form, the Simultaneous Scale showed no relation to any of the reading tasks. These findings suggested that caution must be exercised in presuming that variations in K-ABC performance, especially on the Simultaneous Scale, will predict reading skills in normal readers.

This article presents results from several studies designed to collect normative data and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Home Situations Questionnaire (HSQ) and the School Situations Questionnaire (SSQ). Reliability studies were conducted with both normal and learning-disabled students. Strong internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities were documented for both the HSQ and the SSQ. In addition, good interrater agreement (between mothers and fathers) was found for the HSQ. Comparison of the HSQ with the Conners Parent Rating Scale-Revised produced moderate, but significant correlations between HSQ summary scores and CPRS-R Conduct Problems and Impulsivity-hyperactivity factors, and the Hyperactivity Index. Results offer strong preliminary support for the reliability of the HSQ and SSQ and for the criterion validity of the HSQ.

This investigation was designed to further an understanding of the differences between popular and rejected adolescent males with regard to the domains of social skills, self-control, anger, problem behaviors, and academic performance. For a multi-state sample (N = 191) of adolescents, it was demonstrated that teacher and self-ratings of social skills and self-control meaningfully discriminated popular from rejected males. Ratings of anger, problem behaviors, and academic performance did not contribute to the differentiation of the two groups via a stepwise discriminant function analysis. This investigation extended established behavioral correlates of social competency findings to older adolescents and employed several new (Social Skills Rating System) or infrequently used (Self-Control Rating Scale and Children's Inventory of Anger) behavior rating scales to operationalize social or social-cognitive behaviors hypothesized to be important to the development of social competency.

The measurement of sociocultural characteristics is an accepted component of research as well as clinical practice; however, few standardized measures exist to assist scholars and clinicians in its assessment. The Sociocultural Scales, an important component of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (Mercer & Lewis, 1977), is one of the few instruments designed for this use. This study examined the factor structure of the Sociocultural Scales, utilizing data on 436 Anglo, Black, and Mexican-American children from middle- and lower-class homes. Both iterated principal axis and principal components factor analyses were used. Modest support is found for the factor structure of the four major Sociocultural Scales, although only 38% of the total test variance is accounted for under this model, and estimates of internal consistency are generally low. A number of test items seem to detract from the Scales' effectiveness. The integrity of the Anglicization factor also is questioned.

Forty-eight students, randomly selected from among fifth-grade children who were participating in a re-test estimation study, were administered Forms G and H of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests' Word Identification subtest in a counterbalanced format. Analyses of the data indicate that the two forms of the subtest are not parallel. While a correlation between the scores on the two forms of the subtest was high (r = .86), classification reliability was poor; statistically significant levels were reached for both grade classification and quartile classification inconsistencies between the forms. Implications of these findings for the subtest's use in Woodcock profiles are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between the Draw A Person: A Quantitative Scoring System and the WISC-R with a referred school-aged population. The significance of difference between the standard scores that the two tests yield was examined, as well as the convergent and concurrent validity of the Draw A Person. Additionally, the differences between specific pairs of scores (e.g., PIQ vs. DAP) required for significance when interpreting results for an individual subject were computed. Results indicated that the DAP yields mean scores approximately 4 points lower than the WISC-R, as expected due to softening of the Wechsler norms, and the standard scores correlated significantly (DAP Total Test/FISQ r = .51). Implications for the use and interpretation of these measures as part of a test battery are presented.