VALIDITY OF THE ALLEN COGNITIVE LEVELS ASSESSMENT - A TRIETHNIC COMPARISON

Schizophrenia is a mental illness which is characterized by severe cog nitive deficits and impairments in adaptive functioning. The Alien Cog nitive Levels (ACL) Assessment is a screening instrument designed to a ssess cognitive functioning and to aid clinicians in making judgments about how a patient will be able to perform basic activities of daily living. While the ACL has been widely used, the validity of ACL scores for predicting concurrent adaptive functioning has not been establish ed empirically. The present study examined ACL scores in 110 schizophr enic patients. Scores on the ACL were found to be highly related to sc ores on the Functional Needs Assessment (r = 0.66), which measures a p atient's ability to perform basic activities of daily living. Findings provided some of the first strong evidence that ACL scores reflect ad aptive functioning. Correlations between the ACL and the Functional Ne eds Assessment were equally strong in non-Hispanic whites (n = 31, r = 0.67), Mexican-Americans (n = 58, r = 0.60), and African-Americans (n = 21, r = 0.46), Mean scores did not differ between patients from dif ferent ethnic groups. In addition, there was no relationship between A CL scores and level of acculturation within the Mexican-American group . Our data strongly support the hypothesis that the ACL provides a val id and culturally unbiased measure of cognitive functioning that can b e helpful in determining how a patient is likely to perform activities of daily living.