Structural Validity of the WAIS-III among Postsecondary Students

The recent influx of students with disabilities into postsecondary education has generated a concomitant increase in the demand for psychoeducational assessments that include a measure of cognitive ability, either to identify ability-achievement discrepancies or to rule out alternate or comorbid diagnoses. The most commonly recommended cognitive ability measure for adults is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III). However, evidence regarding the psychometric fitness of the WAIS-III for postsecondary assessments is needed. Of particular interest is its structural validity among these students. This study applied exploratory factor analysis to the WAIS-III scores of 183 students at a large Mid-Atlantic university who were referred for determination of postsecondary disability eligibility. The same four-factor model proposed by Wechsler (1997) for the general population was also appropriate for these students. Thus, these results support the use of the WAIS-III with postsecondary students with suspected disabilities. (Contains 3 tables.)