Use of the 21-Item Test with children and adolescents 5 to 16 years of age

ABSTRACTThe goals of the present study were to: (a) collect preliminary normative data on the 21-Item Test in children and adolescents and to determine if cutoffs for biased responding in adults can be generalized to a younger population; (b) determine if Caucasian and Hispanic children perform differently on the test; and (c) ascertain the relationships of age and verbal intelligence with effort test performance. The 21-Item Test was administered to 153 children attending either a public (n = 96) or private (n = 57) school. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) was also administered to the private school sample. The results indicated that the 21-Item Test has potential as a tool for identifying children who do not put forth maximal effort during formal assessment and that the adult cutoffs appear applicable to children 8 years and older. Caucasian and Hispanic participants performed similarly on the test. Forced-choice scores ≤12 were associated with age and lower levels o...