title: Construct validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth UK Edition with a referred Irish sample: Wechsler and Cattell-Horn-Carroll model comparisons with 15 subtests.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Irish educational psychologists frequently use the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth UK Edition (WISC-IVUK; Wechsler, 2004, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth UK Edition, London, UK, Harcourt Assessment) in clinical assessments of children with learning difficulties. Unfortunately, reliability and validity studies of the WISC-IVUKstandardization sample have not yet been reported. Watkins et al. (2013, International Journal of School and Educational Psychology, 1, 102) found support for a bifactor structure with a large sample (N = 794) of Irish children who were administered the 10 WISC-IVUKcore subtests in clinical assessments of learning difficulties and dominance of general intelligence. Because only 10 subtests were available, Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC; McGrew, 1997, 2005, Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues, New York, NY: Guilford; Schneider & McGrew, 2012, Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues, New York, NY, Guilford Press) models could not be tested and compared.
  The present study utilized confirmatory factor analyses to test the latent factor structure of the WISC-IVUKwith a sample of 245 Irish children administered all 15 WISC-IVUKsubtests in evaluations assessing learning difficulties in order to examine CHC- and Wechsler-based models. One through five, oblique first-order factor models and higher order versus bifactor models were examined and compared using CFA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Meaningful differences in fit statistics were not observed between the Wechsler and CHC representations of higher-order or bifactor models. In all four structures, general intelligence accounted for the largest portions of explained common variance, whereas group factors accounted for small to miniscule portions of explained common variance. Omega-hierarchical subscale coefficients indicated that unit-weighted composites that would be generated by WISC-IVUKgroup factors (Wechsler or CHC) would contain little unique variance and thus be of little value.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results were similar to those from other investigations, further demonstrating the replication of the WISC-IV factor structure across cultures and the importance of focusing primary interpretation on the FSIQ.
authors.affiliation: Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: Gary L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5347-6534
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Canivez
authors.affiliation: Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Marley W
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6352-7174
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.affiliation: Éirim: The National Assessment Agency, Ltd., Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Good
authors.affiliation: Éirim: The National Assessment Agency, Ltd., Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: Éirim: The National Assessment Agency, Ltd., Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0207-0999
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: James
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007494:Ireland; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014888:Wechsler Scales / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Irish children; WISC-IVUK; bifactor model; confirmatory factor analysis; hierarchical confirmatory factor analytic; higher-order model; intelligence