More than ten years after its publication, there has been no prior attempt to investigate the validity of the WISC-IV (Wechsler, 2003) for use in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). This thesis is the first to assess the fit of a cross-cultural interpretive model of WISC-IV (US) measured intelligence in T&T children. The primary objectives were to: ascertain the psychometric properties of the WISC-IV (US); determine how the WISC-IV (US) subtests are associated with specified antecedent environmental variables; examine the relationship between WISC-IV(US) global ability and academic achievement; assess the fit of alternative interpretive models; and determine the predictive validity of adjusted IQ scores. Examination of the correlation matrix corroborated five alternative measurement models, with evidence of best fit for a direct hierarchical framework (Watkins et al., 2006). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated significant positive relationships between parental education and verbal comprehension, and between school performance and verbal comprehension, perceptual reasoning and global ability. Additionally, environmental deprivation was found to be negatively correlated with performance on all WISC-IV (US) composites. Children with higher global intelligence scores performed better than their low-scoring counterparts on two national tests of academic achievement. School performance was also shown to predict academic achievement in the sample. The results of the structural equation modelling analyses provided support for three distinct measurement models featuring the Wechsler indirect hierarchical model, the Watkins et al. direct hierarchical model, and an author-defined cross cultural direct hierarchical model. The antecedent variables of parental education, school performance and environmental deprivation and the outcome variable or academic achievement added significantly to the model. Adjusted factors scores that were derived from each path model accounted for a significant portion of variance in national test performance. If replicated, the current findings offer potentially useful alternative frameworks for interpreting test performance in T&T children.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:688325 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Louison, Korinne Gillian |
| Publisher | Goldsmiths College (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://research.gold.ac.uk/18733/ |
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