Abstract

MERINO SOTO, César A.. Incremental Validity for the modified Bender Gestalt Test in Children Commencing First Grade. Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2014, vol.32, n.2, pp.275-286. ISSN 1794-4724.

The Bender Gestalt Test (BGT) has a long history in psychological assessment and several scoring systems have been developed for it. One of them is the Brannigan and Brunners Qualitative Scoring System (QSS), developed for the modified version of this test that uses six of the nine original designs (BGT Modified). However, there is limited psychometric evidence for the Spanish speaking population about the usefulness of this measure in an academic screening battery. The purpose of this study is to report evidence of incremental validity of this abbreviated version regarding school achievement, within a group of 101 five year olds entering the first grade of primary education. We applied a hierarchical multiple regression controlling for the effects of fluid intelligence and pre-academic skills, compared to the criteria of school grades. We found that the inclusion of BGT Modified brings significant unique variance in school grades, and is a more powerful predictor than intelligence. Our results support the use of BGT Modified in a brief battery of screening in identifying children at risk for poor school performance.

Keywords : Bender Gestalt Test; validity; assessment; children; psychometry; qualitative system.

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