The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BG), a test of visual-motor integration, is a screening device used to investigate school-related factors that may produce poor academic achievement and learning disabilities. Because BG test stimuli are not obviously related to classroom content, and because BG scores are frequently offered as evidence of need of special education placement, its validity has often been questioned. Two studies were conducted examining the effects of selected sociocultural variables on BG developmental scores. The first study examined the effects of ethnicity, gender, social class and age on BG developmental scores. Emotional indicators (EI) were also compared across the same variables. This study showed ethnicity was significant as a predictor variable in that black children made a significantly greater number of scoring errors than white children. Social class membership also produced significant differences in scores. Study two compared the effects of ethnicity, gender and social class on BG developmental scores and EI scores. The validity of the BG for predicting academic achievement was examined by comparing BG developmental scores and scores of the California Achievement Test. The results did not support the contention that black students tend to obtain lower BG scores than white students; when IQ was held constant across groups, no significant differences between black and white children were obtained. Interpretation of BG scores is best accomplished in light of the respective IQ levels of the students. (BAE)