The use of differences scores to assess agreement/disagreement has a long and contentious history. Laird (2020) notes, however, that developmentalists have been particularly resistant to discontinue the use of difference scores. One area of developmental science where difference scores are still in regular use is that of parental differential…

The Child Behavior Checklist and related forms were completed for 171 boys referred for school-based assessment resulting from academic and/or behavioral problems. Adolescents consistently underreported behavioral problems relative to parents and teachers regardless of subsequent diagnosis. Implications of these discrepancies in school-based…

This study assesses the adequacy of item gradients and ceilings for the subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ III) Cognitive and Achievement batteries, including the Diagnostic Supplement, in their use with participants ages 16 to 25 and Grades 10 to 18. Of the 52 subtests, 18 contain adequate item gradients and ceilings for the entire age and…

Brain research explains why testing for surface knowledge (memorization) reveals relatively little about real, usable knowledge. Assessment must contribute to real-world experience, relate to real-world performance, can never be fully translated into representative symbols or numbers, and can induce both helplessness (interference with meaningful…

It is argued that the manual of the Test of Adolescent Language lacks precision even though the authors explicitly state that the test may be used for the purpose of identifying intraindividual differences. To alleviate this problem, a table containing statistically significant differences between subtest standard scores is presented. (Author/CL)

The hypothesis that behaviorally disordered students would perform worse under standard, timed testing conditions than under relaxed time limit conditions was studied with 40 adolescents hospitalized for a variety of behavioral conditions. Performance increased under untimed conditions only in the area of reading comprehension. (Author/SEW)

Examined whether variations in construction and scoring (frequency, sum, average scores) of life events scale (stress measure) for adolescents yielded different outcomes. Findings from 1,740 high school students indicated that frequency of life events and their average intensity were distinct measures and of equal importance when assessing stress…

An evaluation of Round One of a pilot study of a system for identifying effective youth organizations around the world is presented in this report. The report begins with a page of general observations about the successes and shortcomings of the pilot study, indicating that in general the study accomplished its objectives but that a need for…

This article describes practices effective in assessing communication and language in persons with autism. It reviews basic principles that govern assessment in the discipline of speech-language pathology, discusses features associated with autism that affect communication and language assessment, and provides strategies to address these features.…

Tests used to estimate mental abilities (measures of intelligence, perceptual motor ability, and early identification of learning disabilities) are critically examined. (Author)

Examines methodological problems that metaphorical nonequivalence poses for cross-cultural survey research. Data from 1,105 urban ninth graders (including 105 Laotian Hmong) in St. Paul (Minnesota) illustrate problems of the translation of psychological instruments and the difficulties of administering a single instrument to culturally different…

Developed Korean version of Youth Depression Adjective Check List (Y-DACL). Administered state form of Y-DACL to 829 Korean adolescents along with Beck Depression Inventory and Self-Rating Depression Scale. Internal consistency was high, split-half reliability was moderately high, and test-retest reliability was low as expected. Estimates of…

Score differentials between the revised Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) were investigated in 25 possibly mentally handicapped adolescents (10 white, 15 black). Each S was individually administered both the WISC-R and the WAIS. Results supported the hypothesis that for mentally…

Researchers investigated a variety of audiologic procedures to determine whether they could differentiate between auditory thresholds and cutile (cutaneous-tactile) thresholds of 32 deaf adolescents. Ss were classified into one of the following three groups: a cutile group with no pure tone thresholds beyond 750 Hertz (Hz); a group of questionable…

Using data from a study of Black adolescents, the empirical implications were examined of five models which reflected common notions concerning the social influence process assumed to characterize the student-teaching role relationships. Results cast doubt on previous interpretations made in the literature. (Author/KM)