Social Adjustment and Cognitive Performance of High-Risk Children

The study children were given two group-administered tests: the Raven's Matrices and an arithmetic achievement test. In addition they were observed in their classrooms, and also ranked by their classmates in terms of standard sociometric measures. The index children tended to perform somewhat more poorly on the arithmetic and Raven's Matrices tests than the controls. Classroom observations suggested that index cases concentrated more poorly and showed more forms of withdrawal behavior than controls; moreover, they had a lower social status, as viewed by their peers. The relationship of these findings to prior work is discussed, as is the importance of gathering naturalistic observational data.