Investigation of the norms and concurrent validity for the adaptive behavior inventory for children (ABIC)

The generalizability of norm and concurrent validity of the Adaptive Behavior Inventory for Children (ABIC) was investigated with samples of 482 first-, third-, and fifth-grade children in Pima County, Arizona. The samples were stratified by sociocultural group (white, black, Hispanic, and Native American Papago). The published ABIC means based on samples of children from California were higher for two of the three groups (white and black samples). The ABIC means for Native American Papagos were significantly lower than both California and Arizona means for other groups. Little evidence of concurrent validity was found in an examination of correlations among the ABIC, standardized achievement test results (Metropolitan), teacher ratings of classroom performance, intelligence (WISC-R), and sociocultural measures. Caution in use of the ABIC in other regions and with other sociocultural groups was recommended. Implications of the results for the measurement of adaptive behavior, for the issue of bias in assessment, and for the diagnostic construct of mild mental retardation were discussed.