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Cumulative Deficit in IQ of Blacks in the Rural South

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Cumulative Deficit in IQ of Blacks in the Rural South Develop men tui Psychology 1977, Vol. 13, No. 3, 184-191 Cumulative Deficit in IQ of Blacks in the Rural South ARTHUR R.JENSEN University of California, Berkeley The cumulative deficit hypothesis with respect to age decrement in IQ between the ages of 5 and 18 was investigated in large samples of white and black school children in rural Georgia. Age decrement in verbal and nonverbal IQ was measured by the average IQ difference between younger and older siblings. It was found that blacks (but not whites) showed significant and substantial decrements in both verbal and nonverbal IQs as a linear function of age in the rank from about 5 to 16 years of age. An environmental interpretation of the age decrement in IQ seems reasonable in view of the comparative lack of such a decrement in a parallel study of California blacks whose environmental circumstances are markedly better than those of the black sample from rural Georgia. The cumulative deficit hypothesis is in- in a California school district and found a tended to explain the increasing decrement slight but significant age decrement in verbal in mental test scores, relative to population IQ in the black sample, but no evidence norms, as a function of age in groups consid- whatever of a decrement in nonverbal IQ, ered environmentally deprived. According although the black sample scored equally far to the hypothesis, the decrement is a result below (about one standard deviation) the of the cumulative effects of environmental white sample in nonverbal as in verbal IQ. disadvantages on mental development. Jensen suggested, however, that the sib- The history of the cumulative deficit hy- ling method might reveal an age decrement pothesis and its theoretical and methodolog- in the IQ of blacks in other regions of the ical problems have been reviewed by Jensen country where blacks have experienced (1974a). It was concluded that most of the greater environmental disadvantages. Age studies of the phenomenon are seriously decrement in verbal and scholastic abilities flawed by methodological deficiencies. The in Southern blacks was suggested in the Col- majority of studies have found no evidence eman report, (Coleman, Cambell, Hobson, of an age-related IQ decrement in blacks. McPartland, Mood, Weinfeld, & York, Jensen (1974a) proposed investigating IQ 1966, p. 274) but is not proven by the cross- decrement by the sibling method; that is, sectional IQ x Age data which could reflect using the difference in standardized test selective migration of abler pupils out of the scores between younger and older siblings rural South, causing an increasing accumu- within the same family as an indicator of IQ lation of poorer students in the higher grades decrement. If there is a true IQ decrement, in school. older siblings should obtain lower test Although the cumulative deficit hypothe- scores than their younger siblings, and there sis applies to scholastic achievement as well should be a positive correlation between as to IQ, it is clear from the literature on sibling age difference and IQ difference. this topic that the core hypothesis concerns Jensen applied the sibling method to large measured intelligence (Jensen, 1974a). The samples of whites and blacks of ages 5 to 12 author has argued elsewhere that standard- ized IQ tests measure essentially the same Requests for reprints should be sent to Arthur R. general factor of mental ability equally well Jensen, Institute of Human Learning, University of in both whites and blacks. Although IQ tests California, Berkeley, California 94720. are culturally loaded in varying degrees, 184 CUMULATIVE DEFICIT IN IQ 185 there is virtually no evidence, in terms of a population is mostly rural-agricultural, with a very low number of statistical and psychometric cri- median family income compared to the national aver- age. The black group as a whole would be classified as teria (e.g., predictive validity, reliability, very low socioeconomic status (SES) on any index of item analysis, Race x Items interaction, fac- SES. The white population is predominantly low and tor structure, etc.) that the tests are culture lower-middle SES. Some 1,300 school children, ap- biased with respect to the present white and proximately 49% whites and 51% blacks, were tested. black populations in the United States (Jen- sen, 1974b, 1976). The black IQ deficit, whatever its causes, appears to be a quite Tests general cognitive deficit rather than nar- Subjects were tested on the California Test of Mental rowly culture specific. Maturity (1963 Revision), a standardized test of general intelligence, which yields deviation IQs for verbal and If a cumulative deficit in mental devel- nonverbal abilities at every grade level from kindergar- opment as indexed by IQ actually exists at ten through Grade 12 (see Euros, 1972, pp. 631-636). all in any segment of the United States popu- The California Test of Mental Maturity is factorially lation, it should probably be expected most very comparable to other standardized group tests of verbal and nonverbal IQ such as the Lorge-Thorndike in blacks of the rural South. Their environ- Intelligence Tests, which Jensen (1974a) used in the mental circumstances would seem much California study. (The California Test of Mental Matur- more likely to contribute to the cumulative ity was used instead of the Lorge-Thorndike in the deficit effect than would the relatively good Georgia study, since the testing was done as part of the environmental conditions of the California school's state-mandated testing program, which re- quired the California Test of Mental Maturity.) The school sample involved in Jensen's first sib- California Test of Mental Maturity IQs are standard- ling study. The aim of the present study, ized scores (M — 100, SD = 15) based on large samples therefore, is to apply the sibling method to of school children from 49 states. the investigation oflQ decrement in samples of whites and blacks in the rural South. The sampled populations, particularly the black Results and Discussion group, are not intended to be representative of the total white and black populations in Sample Statistics on Age and IQ the United States. Blacks in the locality The total white sample (N = 653) has a under study are probably as severely disad- mean age of 12 years 4 months, SD = 3 years vantaged, educationally and economically, 7 months. The mean age of the total black as can be found anywhere in the United sample (N = 826) is 11 years8 months,SD - States today. If an age decrement does not 3 years 3 months. The white mean total IQ is exist in this group, it would seem most 102, SD = 16.7; the black mean total IQ is doubtful that it could be found in any sub- 71, SD = 15.1. population within our borders. Unlike the California study, in which children from kindergarten through sixth grade were used, Sibling Analyses the present study includes children from kindergarten through twelfth grade, thereby All of the analyses are based on siblings increasing the chances of detecting IQ dec- from families with two or more children who rement by the method of differences be- are in school and who have been tested. tween younger and older siblings. (The mean number of children per family with two or more children is: white = 2.42, black = 3.29.) Method An age decrement in IQ should be indi- cated by a positive difference between Subjects younger and older siblings (i.e., Y-O). The subjects in this study were all of the white and black children enrolled in the public schools of a small rural town in the southeastern part of Georgia.1 The Test of IQ as an Interval Scale. The sibling method must assume an interval scale of the I am indebted to R. T. Osborne for securing these measurements in question. This becomes an data. especially important consideration in com- 186 ARTHUR R. JENSEN paring sibling differences across white and having different scale properties in various black groups whose IQs are predominantly parts of the full range. distributed in different ranges of the IQ scale. Are IQ differences in the lower and Younger - Older Sibling IQ Difference. If IQ upper parts of the scale really equivalent? declines with age, there should be a positive The most appropriate method of deter- mean difference between the IQs of younger mining this for the present study is to deter- minus older siblings (i.e., Y-O). Table 1 mine if there is any systematic relationship shows the mean Y-O sibling IQ differences between absolute sibling IQ differences and for all sibling pairs of the same birth order the mean IQ of sibling pairs. If there is no within each family of a given size. This significant correlation between absolute dif- method thus does not confound the mean ferences and means of sibling IQs, it could sibling difference with family size as would not be argued that the results of the sibling be the case if we simply averaged all possible method used to determine IQ decrement sibling differences within each family. Doing (based on the IQ difference between the latter tends to exaggerate the magnitude younger and older siblings) are a scale ar- of Y - O sibling differences, should they tifact. There is no theoretical basis for ex- exist, in whichever group (in this case the pecting that sibling absolute differences in black) that has the larger number of siblings IQ should differ as a function of their general per family. Families with more than five sib- location on the IQ scale. The finding of a lings were excluded from the analysis, since significant correlation between absolute dif- the Ns are too small to permit reliable statis- ferences and means, therefore, would sug- tical treatment.
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