The Bender-Gestalt psychopathology scale: failure to infer validity in a school-aged sample

The concurrent validity of Hutt's (1977) empirical psychopathology scale of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test was evaluated among three groups of younger school-aged children within the 7-to-10- year age range (M = 109.1): adjustment disordered, conduct disordered, and nonclinical controls (n = 40/group). Excellent interscorer reliability was achieved with approximately 2 hr of self-study of the scoring manual. Although the conduct-disordered group was significantly more immature on Koppitz' Developmental Scoring System, there were no significant differences among groups on the psychopathology scale when visual-motor development was covaried (M = 50.5). This was an unexpected result, given Hutt's initial validation study among school-aged children. The psychopathology scale was not inferred to be valid among adolescents in the only known concurrent validation study. Pending supportive validation research, the psychopathology scale should not be employed in the clinical assessment of younger school-aged children.