Educational and Developmental Psychologists are frequently required to assess a person for the presence or absence of an intellectual disability. The assessment is important as the availability of particular services is usually tied to a formal determination that an intellectual disability is present. A key element to deciding on the existence of an intellectual disability is the presence of a level of intelligence below a predetermined level. Although definitions of intellectual disability usually refer only to significant sub-average intellectual functioning, the actual cut-off score used to indicate this level of intellectual functioning has varied over time. Whatever that cut-off level is determined to be, there are technical difficulties that make assessment of intellectual functioning less than straightforward. These difficulties result from (a) standardized tests having different standard deviations, resulting in differing scores for cut-off levels based on standard deviation calculations, (b) different standardized tests giving different scores when administered to the same person, (c) less than perfect test reliability creating uncertainty about whether the measured intelligence corresponds with the actual intelligence of the individual being assessed, and (d) many people having impairments in sight, hearing, or motor function that make the standardized administration of tests impossible. It is recommended that educational psychologists be familiar with these issues so that they can make decisions that satisfy social justice objectives. Furthermore, it is argued that familiarity with these issues will help psychologists to defend their decisions when it is necessary.

The coping actions of a group of young people with an intellectual disability were investigated using an adapted version of The Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS; Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993a). Generally, the coping of this population has been addressed by focusing on adaptive behaviours that, generally, have been determined on the basis of reports by significant others rather than by self-report instruments. The lack of suitable instruments rarely gives these young people opportunities to reflect on their behaviour. In this exploratory investigation, an adapted version of the ACS, a recently developed Australian self-report measure of coping, was administered to young people with intellectual disabilities who were in employment (n = 4) or who were unemployed (n = 18). It was found that employed young people coped in more positive ways than did the unemployed group. The only distinguishing characteristic between the ways in which males and females coped was a declaration by females that they lacked the strategies with which to cope. There was a general concurrence between self-reported coping actions and those reported by significant others. The findings suggest that an adapted version of the ACS may be useful with this population of young people. Further development and validation of the instrument with this population are recommended.

This study of 123 children who weighed under 1500 grams at birth examined cognitive ability and behaviour at 4 years of age, in conjunction with two categories of birthweight and parental socioeconomic status, respectively. Analysis revealed a number of significant differences between the two birthweight groups, with children under 1000 grams performing less well on some WPPSI Scales. These effects of preterm birth, in turn, appeared to be further influenced by socioeconomic status.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) secondary psychology course in preparing students for studying psychology at a tertiary level. First semester results of 228 first year psychology students at Victoria University of Technology were analysed. Of these students 60 had completed VCE Psychology in 1992. No significant differences were observed in overall semester one psychology performance between students who had completed VCE Psychology and those who had not. Regression analysis suggested that VCE aggregate score was a better predictor than the VCE Psychology score of overall performance in the first year psychology course. Subsequent correlation analyses demonstrated that VCE Psychology scores correlated significantly with tertiary psychology examination results but not with coursework requirements. VCE aggregate scores correlated with both examination and coursework requirements. These results suggest that completion of VCE Psychology does not advantage students entering tertiary psychology courses and educators need to analyse both the content and process of both secondary and tertiary psychology courses to facilitate more effective articulations for students.

A large sample of adolescents were screened for test anxiety using the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC). Subjects with low and high scores on the TASC were then compared in a structured clinical interview (Interview Schedule for Children, ISC). The high test anxious adolescents showed a significantly greater preponderance of disorders, particularly anxiety disorders. We argue that these findings have implications for counsellors and psychologists working in school settings.