Cultural Adaptation and Norms Setting of a Childhood Intelligence Measure in a Rural District of Pakistan

Abstract

This doctoral research was undertaken with an overall aim to enhance future productivity of rural children in Pakistan by focusing on their cognitive potential. Objectives to achieve this aim included administration of the culturally adapted Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence– fourth edition (WPPSI– IV) in order to develop local intelligence norms in 6–7 years old children of rural district Rawalpindi. Rural setting was selected because Pakistan has 63% of the rural area; therefore, rural children deserve foremost priority in their cognitive potential assessment. Four–stage Kilifi approach was utilized for the cultural adaptation and piloting (n=61) of this intelligence measure. During the main study, adapted WPPSI–IV was administered to 300 children for measuring their Full Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) which is an indicator of the cognitive development. During adaptation and piloting, goodness of fit analyses of the first and second order piloting data models concluded that the a priori WPPSI–IV model was able to reproduce acceptable degree of correlations in the piloting data models. Furthermore, the FSIQ scores of piloting data were found to be normally distributed. In contrast, FSIQ scores distribution for the main study dataset came out to be non–normal with a positive skew. Mean FSIQ and standard deviation, for the main study dataset of this PhD research, was 84 and 13 respectively. According to the recommended qualitative WPPSI–IV score interpretation, mean FSIQ of rural Pakistani children relative to the United States normative sample was in the category of “low–average” while scores of majority of children were in ‘borderline’ category. Owing to the scarcity of the published literature, comparison of the current research’s FSIQ finding could not be made with other similar studies on intelligence testing of the rural children from the developing world. Findings of the multiple regression analysis carried out in this doctoral research, concluded that grade/class of the child was the most influential predictor of the FSIQ followed by the level of mother’s and then father’s education. Thirty percent of the mothers in this PhD study were found to be illiterate while this percentage for fathers was eleven percent. Findings of our PhD research are in line with the previous empirical studies indicating that educated mothers were more likely to have children with higher levels of cognitive development than the illiterate mothers. Both the parents of the child who scored maximum FSIQ, in this doctoral research, received 16 years of education while the parents of the child with minimum FSIQ were illiterate. Child with lowest FSIQ was in the first grade while highest scorer was in the second grade. Therefore, FSIQ/IQ of rural Pakistani children in low–average to borderline categories, seen in this doctoral research, is not reflective of their full cognitive potential. Wechsler tests measure intelligence partially through the vehicle of items taught in school, and therefore, more or better schooling could produce the appearance of intelligence gains over time. Educational system and living conditions of the rural Pakistani children did not expose them to the similar areas of knowledge tested by the Wechsler IQ scale. Assumption that differences in culture do not affect hypothetically “culture–reduced” psychological measures is questionable with regards to the construct validation findings of this doctoral research. Three latent constructs (visual spatial, working memory and fluid reasoning) that demonstrated multicollinearity in the piloting data models are identified by two observed variables in the WPPSI–IV a priori model. Recommendation in this regard is that every latent factor should be defined by at least three and preferably four observed variables with acceptable loadings on it. Consequently, cognitive development measures for use in developing countries need to be disaggregated to incorporate urban–rural and rich–poor disparities in order to address such unexplained group differences that could leave a void for racially prejudiced interpretation. However, inspite of all the challenges at hand, operationalization of the available intelligence tests in particular settings of the developing world is needed in order to shape indicators for monitoring cognitive development Because, one of the important reasons that developing world’s governments do not invest in early childhood development is lack of globally accepted indicators to monitor progress with respect to the childhood cognitive development.