Richard A. Weinberg

IQ test performance of Black children adopted by White families.

The poor performance of black children on IQ tests and in school has been hypothesized to arise from (a) genetic racial differences or (6) cultural/ environmental disadvantages. To separate genetic fac- tors from rearing conditions, 130 black/interracial chil- dren adopted by advantaged white families were studied. The socially classified black adoptees, whose natural parents were educationally average, scored above the IQ and the school achievement mean of the white popu- lation. Biological children of the adoptive parents scored even higher. Genetic and environmental de- terminants of differences among the black/interracial adoptees were largely confounded. The high IQ scores of the socially classified black adoptees indicate malle- ability for IQ under rearing conditions that are relevant to the tests and the schools. It is well known that black children reared by their own families achieve IQ scores that average about a standard deviation (IS points) below whites (Jensen, 1973; Loehlin, Lindzey, & Spuhler, 197S). This finding is at the heart of a continuing contro- versy in the educational arena. Recent studies (Cleary, Humphreys, Kendrick, & Wesman, 1975) confirm the hypothesis that low IQ scores predict poor school performance, regardless of race. Thus, more black children than white children fail to achieve academically and to earn the credentials required by higher occupational status, with its

Toward a Science for and of the People: Promoting Civil Society through the Application of Developmental Science

Applied developmental science (ADS) is scholarship that seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions-policies and programs-that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children and families. Through this integration ADS may become a major means to foster a science for and of the people. It may serve as an exemplar of the means through which scholarship, with community collaboration, may contribute directly to social justice. In so doing, ADS helps shift the model of amelioration, prevention, or optimization research from one demonstrating efficacy to one promoting outreach. When this contribution occurs in the context of university-community partnerships, ADS may serve also as a model of how higher education may engage policy makers, contribute to community capacity to sustain valued programs, and maintain and perpetuate civil society through knowledge-based, interinstitutional systems change.

The Minnesota transracial adoption study: A follow-up of IQ test performance at adolescence

Abstract Members of 101 transracial adoptive families were restudied 10 years after the initial research (Scarr & Weinberg, 1976, 1978). In this article we report on IQ scores and school achievements of the black and interracial children and other adopted children, and the biological offspring of the adoptive families at mid- to late-adolescence. Because of changes in tests and in norms, members of the adoptive families, including parents, scored on average lower at Time 2 follow-up than at Time 1. There were no differences between the transracial adoptees and the biological offspring of the adoptive parents in IQ score change from Time 1 to Time 2. In general, the results support the original findings: Being reared in the culture of the tests and the culture of the schools benefits all childrens IQ scores and school achievements.

Intellectual similarities within families of both adopted and biological children.

Abstract The effects of genetic and environmental differences on intellectual differences among children were examined in a study of families with both biological and adopted children. IQ scores of all family members and education of natural parents were used to estimate intellectual similarities among related and unrelated persons, living together and apart. Comparisons of correlations between related and unrelated siblings produced negligible heritability values, whereas the parent-child data suggested moderate heritability for the childrens IQ differences. The high mean values of the adopted childrens IQ scores and the high degree of similarity among unrelated sibs suggest that IQ scores are more maleable than previously thought.

IQ Correlations in Transracial Adoptive Families

Abstract IQ tests were administered to all available members over 4 years old in 101 transracial adoptive families when the adopted children were an average of 7 years old and again when they averaged 17 years old. At both times, 426 members of 93 families were studied; 398 were seen in person and administered the WAIS-R or WISC-R. IQ correlations were calculated for adopted and biological parent-child pairs, and for genetically related and unrelated siblings. Educational levels of birth parents were correlated with the IQ scores of their adopted-away children. Results show that biologically related family members tended to resemble each other intellectually more than did adoptive family members at both time points. IQ correlations for biological parent-child pairs exceeded those for adoptive parent-child pairs, and correlations were greater for genetically related than unrelated siblings. In late adolescence, the IQ scores of unrelated siblings in the transracial adoptive families were more similar than those of unrelated adolescent siblings pairs reported in other studies. The pattern of IQ correlations for unrelated siblings suggested that familial environmental influences on IQ decline from childhood to late adolescence, but this conclusion was not supported by parent-child IQ correlations. The effects of selective placement on familial IQ correlations were small. Estimates of genetic and familial environmental influences on IQ were very similar to those of other studies. This suggests that the influences on intellectual development in this sample of black/interracial adoptees reared in white families are similar to those for children in the majority populations of the United States and Western Europe.

The Matching Familiar Figures Test: A Look as Its Psychometric Credibility.

EGELAND, BYRON, and WEINBERG, RICHARD A. The Matching Familiar Figures Test: A Look at Its Psychometric Credibility. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 483-491. In an attempt to evaluate the psychometric credibility of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT) as the operational measure of reflection-impulsivity, a study of the short-term (1 week) reliability of different versions of the MFFT for boys and girls at kindergarten, second, and fifth grades was conducted. The relations between time 1 and time 2 latencies and errors separately for males and females at all 3 grade levels, while significant, were low. Canonical correlations and test-retest correlations based on combining raw time and error scores into a standard score were approximately .65-.75. The X2 analyses indicated that approximately 45%-70% of the subjects classified as impulsive or reflective at time 1 were classified in the same way at time 2. Reliability at the kindergarten level was particularly poor and suggests that the MFFT should not be used with children at that age. Mean differences were found among different forms of the MFFT and across grade level.

Family Factors Associated With High Academic Competence in Former Head Start Children at Third Grade

Most studies of gifted students have looked at already identified groups, often convenience samples. This study takes a more epidemiological approach. Of the 5,400 children in the National Head Start/Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration group Project tested at the end of third grade, the highest achieving 3% (N = 162) were selected by conducting a principal components analysis on their scores on the vocabulary and achievement measures. Compared with the remaining children, the high-achieving children were thriving both socially and academically, and, although as a group they were not enamoured of school, fewer were strongly disaffected. On the whole, the families of these children had somewhat more resources on which to call and somewhat fewer stresses with which to deal than the families of the remaining children, although their mean income was only 1.26 times the Poverty Index. Compared to caretakers of the remaining children, caretakers of high achievers ascribed to more positive parenting attitudes and were seen by teachers as more strongly encouraging their childrens progress. Of the 113 third-grade high achievers with test scores at grades 1, 2, and 3, 52 had met the 3% criterion in at least 2 grades, and 37 had done so in all 3. Years of high achievement correlated with family resources. These findings demonstrate that even families sorely stressed by life circumstances can support very positive intellectual and social competence in their children.

Applying developmental science in the 21st century: International scholarship for our times

Applied developmental science (ADS) is scholarship that seeks to advance the integration of developmental research with actions that promote positive development and/or enhance the life chances of vulnerable children, youth, young and old adults, and their families. The ADS perspective challenges the validity of decontextualised knowledge and the legitimacy of isolating scholarship from the pressing human problems of our world. This orientation emphasises the importance of scholar/university-community partnerships as an essential means of fostering bidirectional relationships between research and practice, wherein developmental research both guides and is guided by the outcomes of social interventions.

Family Factors Associated with High Academic Competence among Former Head Start Children.

From a database generated by the multi-site National Head Start/Public School Early Childhood Transition Demonstration Project, a subsample of the 154 children with the highest academic achievement was drawn from the 5,142 non-handicapped participants from English-speaking homes with relatively complete data collected in Spring of first grade. Their families reported higher educational and income levels and had fewer children, more of the families were Caucasian, childrens caretakers less often reported prolonged depression, parenting practices were more responsive and flexible and less restrictive, and the children were seen by parents and teachers as more socially skilled than were the comparison group. Within this low-income group (half reporting monthly incomes of

Racial-Group Differences in IQ in the Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study: A Reply to Levin and Lynn

1,000 or less), conditions propitious for child development are demonstrated to be associated with high academic competence.