A study was conducted to investigate the predictive validity of parents' ability to attend to their children (ATA) on intelligence and to determine to what extent ATA and social class variables, in combination, can account for the discrepancy in the IQ scores of children of different races. Ss were 700 Head Start children. The criterion variables used were the results of two administrations (at the beginning and end of the school year) of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. The predictor variables were number of siblings, father presence or absence, ATA rating of neighborhood, status according to the Head Start poverty guidelines, and race. The data supported both hypotheses: (1) that variables describing parents ability to attend to their children, combined with a general social class variable, can be used to predict intellectual achievement; and (2) that, having developed a regression equation using ATA and social class variable, the addition of ethnic variables will not significantly add to the predictive value. (KM)