CONCURRENT AND PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY OF THE ALLEN COGNITIVE LEVELS ASSESSMENT

The present study examined the concurrent and predictive validity of t he Allen Cognitive Levels (ACL) Assessment in a sample of 110 medicate d patients with schizophrenia who received the ACL at discharge from a state psychiatric facility. Subsamples within this group of patients had received an Activities of Daily Living assessment (n = 64) and a c omprehensive neuropsychological test battery (n = 48) at discharge, or a battery of community follow-up measures (n = 30) 1-3.5 years follow ing discharge as part of other investigations. Positive correlations w ere found between the ACL and concurrent measures of adaptive and cogn itive function. With respect to cognitive variables, stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the majority of the variance in ACL scores was predicted by neuropsychological test scores assessing high er level cognitive processes, such as visual organization, manipulatio n of information in working memory, and ability to inhibit a response to a prepotent stimulus. Finally, results revealed positive relationsh ips between the ACL obtained at discharge and community functioning at follow-up. The results of this study provide some evidence for the co ncurrent and predictive validity of the ACL for patients with schizoph renia and suggest that further study of this assessment tool would be important to pursue in future investigations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scienc e Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.