ASSESSING THE SIMILARITY OF THE FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE K-ABC FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE-CHILDREN

The K-ABC test data from both the standardization sample and a sociocu ltural sample were analyzed for African-American (n = 345) and White c hildren (n = 887) to assess the similarity of the factor structure of the test for the two ethnic groups. Four statistical techniques are ap plied in the analysis: comparison of the first principal component loa dings; congruence coefficients based on loadings from exploratory fact or analysis; congruence coefficients based on loadings from confirmato ry factor analysis; and correlational analysis for assessing the simil arity of the correlation matrices of the test battery for the two ethn ic soups. The results show that the factor structure of the K-ABC is v ery similar for the Black and the White samples across the age groups. These empirical findings indicate that the construct validity of the K-ABC should hold well for both the Black and White groups.