title: Delinquents and the Tapping Test.
abstract: This study provided Tapping Test norms for young legal offenders by measuring 54 Anglo male probationers (35 juveniles, 19 adults) in Study I, and 127 probationers aged 12-17 within eight sex/age/ethnicity subgroups in Study II. The Tapping Test, a measure of fine-motor speed, forms part of the Halstead-Reitan battery for neuropsychodiagnosis. Study I results suggest that tapping speed related to age for juvenile male delinquents, p less than .01; for adults, speed relates to IQ, p less than .05. Study II results suggest that Anglo females--but not non-Anglo females-- tap slower than males, p less than .01. The results were only paritally consistent with those of prior studies. Future researchers may wish to: (a) refine norms by appropriate adjustments for age and IQ; (b) investigate why Anglo female delinquents were especially slow on the Tapping Test; and (c) evaluate to what extent false positives may be provoked on this test by depression rather than organicity.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012737:Sex Factors