Concurrent Validity and Reliability of the Kaufman Version of the McCarthy Scales Short Form for a Sample of Mexican-American Children

Largely because of Public Law (PL) 94-142, there has been a recent spate of interest in the early detection of children who might have learning problems. The major focus of such research has been to develop abbreviated tests (short forms) from well known clinical tests of intelligence. The concurrent validity and reliability of Kaufman's short-form version of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA) was examined for a sample of 342 Mexican-American preschool and kindergarten age children. The impetus for this investigation was due to interest generated by PL 94-142 and by the paucity of appropriate screening instruments for such children. The results showed that generally the positive psychometric properties of the Kaufman short form of the MSCA (correlation between the estimated scores from the Kaufman form and actual cognitive scores earned on the full MSCA, standard error of estimate, and reliability) were also noted for the children in this study. It was concluded that the Kaufman short form can be safely used in the screening of Mexican-American children who may have learning problems, but with extreme caution and flexibility, particularly in the case of monolingual Spanish-speaking children.