Performance of 2146 Children Ages 5 to 15 with Learning and Behavioral Dysfunction on the Das Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System

摘要

This study aims to measure the psychometric properties of the Das Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (DN-CAS), to examine the construct validity of the Catalan-Spanish version, and to determine its clinical utility in a large bilingual Catalan-Spanish sample ( n = 2146). Participant age ranged from 5 years to 15 years old (female 56%). 472 of them were between 5 and 7 years old, 1050 of them were between 8 and 11 years old, and 624 of them were between 12 and 15 years old. The clinical discrimination of the DN-CAS was examined by comparing children with learning difficulties ( n = 1160) and behavioral dysfunction (n = 986) . A four-factor solution for cognitive performance was demonstrated. The current four-factor structure of the DN-CAS was similar to the original four-factor structure of the test. Furthermore, planning and attention are the most interdependent processes (r > .05, p < .001), and instead successive is the most independent process. Additionally, the DN-CAS, particularly successive and simultaneous, appear as development-related whereas planning and attention are more independent of age. Also, underperformance is mainly linked to successive and instead overperformance is clearly linked to simultaneous. And planning and attention are less susceptible to deviation from the norms independently of age, which is an advantage because intervention is basically based on planning. Finally, an “N” pattern is described in relationship to emotional dysfunction, therefore it represent a marker of emotional dysfunction.