Bootstrap Exploratory Graph Analysis of the WISC-V with a Clinical Sample

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Psychometrics
• Network analysis

Background:

• Structural validity is crucial for construct validity in psychological testing.
• Traditional factor analysis methods have yielded inconsistent dimensionality for the WISC-V.
• Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) offers an alternative approach to identifying test structure.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the structural validity of the WISC-V using a bootstrap EGA technique.
• To compare the dimensionality identified by EGA with traditional factor analytic findings.
• To examine the construct and scoring structures of the WISC-V in a large clinical sample.

Main Methods:

• Employed a bootstrap Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) on a large clinical sample (N = 7149).
• Analyzed the structure of the 10 primary subtests of the WISC-V.
• Investigated network structures without assuming common latent causes for score covariation.

Main Results:

• Identified a four-subnetwork structure for the WISC-V primary subtests.
• The EGA structure indicated a merging of fluid reasoning and visual-spatial dimensions.
• Results suggest a discrepancy between the WISC-V's construct and publisher-preferred scoring structures.

Conclusions:

• The study highlights potential issues with WISC-V interpretations due to structural discrepancies.
• EGA provides a novel perspective on the WISC-V's dimensionality.
• Psychologists should be cautious when interpreting WISC-V results based on the publisher's structure.