WAIS-IV performance in fluent Danish-speaking Arabic-Danish bilingual university students: effects of acculturation and bilingualism

OBJECTIVES: Psychologists are increasingly asked to assess intellectual functions in adults from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This study investigated the impact of acculturation and bilingualism on Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)-IV performance among Arabic-Danish bilingual university students. METHODS: Forty-eight academically high-achieving participants (69% female), fluent in Danish and educated entirely in Denmark, were recruited in Greater Copenhagen and completed a demographic questionnaire, the Danish version of the WAIS-IV, and self-report measures of acculturation and bilingualism. RESULTS: Several WAIS-IV indexes and subtests were significantly associated with degree of bilingualism and acculturation, even after controlling for educational variables. Despite being academically high-achieving university students, participants scored below the national mean on most indexes and subtests. In fact, only performances on the Processing Speed Index, and the Coding and Symbol Search subtests were at the expected level. Notably, the lowest scores were observed on Block Design, which showed a strong correlation with Arabic acculturation scores. Finally, participants had index profiles that were more uneven than predicted based on the norms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the influence of cultural and linguistic factors on WAIS-IV performance and suggest that WAIS-IV may not fully capture the intellectual abilities of bilingual individuals, even when they are fluent in the test language and have the same educational experience as the norm population.