Differences in Neuropsychological Performance between Refugee and Non-Refugee Children in Palestine.

Neuropsychological studies on refugee children are scarce, but there are even less in the case of Palestinian children. This work aims to study the neuropsychological performance of Palestinian refugee children in Palestine compared to other Palestinian children living outside refugee camps. A comprehensive Neuropsychological battery was administrated to 584 Palestinian school children (464 refugees and 120 non-refugees) aged 6, 7, and 8 years old. Results showed that non-refugee children outperformed refugee children in sustained attention, verbal comprehension, verbal memory, and visual memory. This study is the first to have performed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment, based on a standardized and validated battery with the Palestinian refugee children. It supports professionals in their evaluation of neurodevelopment and neuropsychological alterations in refugee and non-refugee children in Palestine.

Cultural Bias in Intelligence Assessment Using a Culture-Free Test in Moroccan Children.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown that cognitive tests can lead to misclassification when applying non-representative norms to measure cognitive performance. The objective of this study was to investigate whether this misclassification also occurs with a non-verbal so-called "culture-free" intelligence test administered to different age groups. METHOD: The intelligence of a sample of healthy Moroccan children (N = 147) ages 7, 9, and 11 was assessed using the Coloured Raven's Progressive Matrices (CPM). Raw scores were used to study age differences, as well as misclassifications when applying the norms of three countries culturally different from Morocco (United Kingdom, Spain, and Oman). RESULTS: Intelligence performance was not within the normal range when non-representative norms were applied to the Moroccan raw scores. Misclassifications accounted for a large percentage of the participants that supposedly displayed intelligence deficits, especially when applying the British norms. Up to 15.68% of the healthy children fell within the "intellectually impaired" range, and up to 62.5% fell "below average," with these percentages especially higher at older ages. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings confirm that "culture-free" tests should be adapted to each culture and applied together with their culture's specific norms to prevent misclassification and allow for a better, unbiased neuropsychological assessment.

Influence of Socio-Economic Status on Psychopathology in Ecuadorian Children.

The socioeconomic status (SES) of parents has been reported to have a crucial impact on emotional competence in childhood. However, studies have largely been carried out in developed countries and in children in a specific age range, and it is not clear whether the effect of the SES of parents varies by age. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychopathological profile (including externalizing and internalizing problems) of children aged 7, 9, and 11 years old with low SES in a developing country (Ecuador). The study included 274 children (139 boys and 135 girls), who were divided between medium-SES (n = 133) and low-SES (n = 141) groups. Data were gathered on socioeconomic and anthropometric variables of the children, and the parents completed the Child Behavior Check-List (CBCL). In comparison to the medium-SES group, children in the low-SES group obtained higher scores for internalizing and externalizing symptoms and for total problems, and they obtained lower scores for social competence skills. The housing risk index and school competence were the two main predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems in this population.

Neuropsychological Measures in the Arab World: A Systematic Review.

Although Arabic is one of the most widely used languages in the world, little is known on the availability of standardized neuropsychological tests in Arabic. We review the literature published before 2016, using the keywords Arab*, cogniti*, and neuropsycholo*, as well as keywords for each Arab country. PubMed, PsycINFO, Education Source, Academic Search Complete, Education Resources Information Center, Shamaa, and Arabpsynet databases were searched, in addition to a selected number of Arabic medical and educational journals. After excluding case reports, studies conducted on Arab groups residing outside the Arab world or Israel, and studies that employed intelligence scales or cognitive screens without standardization, 384 studies were eventually reviewed. Tests with most extensive use, adaptation, validation and norming were identified. The Raven Matrices, with its variants, was the most normed cognitive test for Arab individuals (normed in 16 countries). The rate of neuropsychology publications from the Arab countries combined, per year, was less than half of that of each American journal (top 10 journals pertaining to cognition). Nonetheless, the rate in Arab countries has increased after 2010. Publications were mostly from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but the ratio of test adaptation-to-publication was the largest in Jordan and Lebanon. Approximately half of these publications did not employ cognitive tests that were developed, translated, adapted, or standardized according to international guidelines of psychological measurement. We provide recommendations on improving clinical neuropsychology to better serve Arab patients.

Diagnostic mistakes of culturally diverse individuals when using North American neuropsychological tests.

Although the role of culture has increasingly gained acceptance in clinical neuropsychology, relatively minimal research exists regarding the actual impact on clinical activities. In this study, we assess how using North American neuropsychological tests affects diagnostic accuracy in cognitive disorders of culturally diverse individuals. To address this question, participants from Colombia, Morocco, and Spain were administered five commonly used neuropsychological tests and the test results were used to determine whether they would be classified as having the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Mild Cognitive and Major Cognitive Disorder. Results reveal that diagnostic error occurred up to 20% of the time, and that the frequency of misdiagnosis differed by nationality. These results provide evidence that using tests from one culture to assess individuals from other cultures produces significant false positives. Findings are discussed in terms of the foundations of neuropsychological assessment and its relationship to cultural variables.

Reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the computerized Battery for Neuropsychological Evaluation of Children (BENCI).

Batería de Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (BENCI) is a computerized battery for the neuropsychological evaluation of children. This battery has been used in different studies to evaluate neuropsychological functions and neurodevelopment in children. The objective of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the first Arabic version of the BENCI on an Arabic population where neuropsychological tests are very scarce. We administrate the BENCI to 198 school-age children (98 boys and 100 girls) from Morocco. To examine the test retest reliability of the BENCI battery, we administered the battery 2 times to 43 children (23 boys and 20 girls) with 15 days in between the pre- and posttest. The results revealed good validity and reliability of the battery in Arabic children. Also, the BENCI battery has demonstrated the capacity to differentiate between children by their age group. This battery can be of great use to both the research and clinical areas of Arabic countries and/or in assistance to Arabic immigrants that live outside of their native country.

Is the color trails culture free?

Increasingly clinical neuropsychology has been addressing the effects of culture on neuropsychological functioning. However, that focus has been on comparing performance on standardized tests across two or more groups, often Hispanic. In this study, Arabic children were tested in Morocco using a "culture-free test," Children's Color Trails. Children of different ages and living in rural and urban centers were tested. The results suggest that the Color Trails Test scores from Arab children differed from U.S. norms available. Furthermore, the location of testing and the age of the child were of significance. The role of culture-specific tests was considered.

Cultural differences in neuropsychological abilities required to perform intelligence tasks.

Different studies have demonstrated that culture has a basic role in intelligence tests performance. Nevertheless, the specific neuropsychological abilities used by different cultures to perform an intelligence test have never been explored. In this study, we examine the differences between Spaniards and Moroccans in the neuropsychological abilities utilized to perform the Beta III as a non-verbal intelligence test. The results showed that the Spaniard group obtained a higher IQ than the Moroccan group in the Beta III. Moreover, the neuropsychological abilities that predicted scores for the Beta III were dependent on the country of origin and were different for each subtest. Besides showing the cultural effect on non-verbal intelligence test performance, our results suggest that a single test may measure different functions, depending on the subject's cultural background.