Intellectual discrepancy of battered children in child guidance centers: Comparisons on the WISC-III subtest profile using matched group

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the intellectual profile of battered children in child guidance centers (CGC). Participants, obtained from case records in the CGC, were 58 physically abused children and 58 comparison children matched for sex, age, and Full scale IQ. The WISC-III subtests scores of physically abused group were lower than those of the norms on the standardization samples. The multivariate analysis of variance detected an overall group difference in 10 subtests between physically abused and matched comparison. Moreover, paired-t tests corrected by Bonferroni's method, logistic regression analysis, and discriminant function analysis consistently identified the significant differences on the Picture Completion (PC) and the Picture Arrangement (PA) subtests. The battered children scored higher on the PC and lower on the PA than matched comparison. In addition, the two subtest scores compared with a mean score of all subtests scores; intra-group differences of low PA score in physically abused, and of low PC score in comparison reached marginal significance level. Implications for clinical practices were discussed.