Department of Clinical Psychology, Mercer University College of Health Professions, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2019 Nov 27;34(8):1340-1345. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acz003.
To investigate whether the General Educational Development (GED) certificate should be considered equivalent to a standard 12-year high school education when performing demographic corrections on neuropsychological performance levels. If the GED certificate and high school diploma reflect comparable levels of educational achievement, then performance on the Test of Premorbid Function (TOPF) and selected WAIS-IV indices should not differ between groups.
Archival neuropsychology data were reviewed to identify patients who either (1) did not complete high school and did not subsequently obtain a GED, (2) did not complete high school but subsequently obtained a GED, or (3) completed high school and did not obtain any further formal education. Most patients were programmatic referrals for epilepsy surgery evaluation, although referrals from the general neurology clinic were also included. The primary dependent measures were the TOPF and WAIS-IV Full Scale IQ (FSIQ).
High school graduates obtained higher scores on the TOPF (p < .01, partial η2 = 0.16) and FSIQ (p < .01, partial η2 = 0.14) as compared to both GED subjects and subjects withdrawing from high school with no GED. The non-GED group and the GED group did not differ from each other.
These findings demonstrate that the GED is not equivalent to a standard 12-year high school education when characterizing educational background. Although these data do not address what the appropriate year equivalent should be for the GED when adjusting performance for educational background, using 12 years will likely identify more areas of neuropsychological weakness simply by suggesting higher levels of premorbid ability.
研究在进行神经心理表现水平的人口统计学校正时，普通教育发展（GED）证书是否应被视为等同于标准的 12 年高中学历。如果 GED 证书和高中文凭反映出相当的教育成就水平，那么在测试前功能（TOPF）和选择的 WAIS-IV 指数上，两组之间的表现不应有所不同。
回顾档案中的神经心理学数据，以确定以下患者组：（1）未完成高中学业且未随后获得 GED 证书；（2）未完成高中学业但随后获得 GED 证书；或（3）完成高中学业但未获得任何进一步的正规教育。大多数患者是癫痫手术评估的计划性转诊，尽管也包括来自普通神经内科的转诊。主要的因变量是 TOPF 和 WAIS-IV 全量表智商（FSIQ）。
与 GED 科目和未完成高中学业且未获得 GED 证书的科目相比，高中毕业生在 TOPF（p<.01，部分 η2=0.16）和 FSIQ（p<.01，部分 η2=0.14）上的得分更高。非 GED 组和 GED 组彼此之间没有差异。
这些发现表明，在描述教育背景时，GED 与标准的 12 年高中学历并不等同。尽管这些数据并未解决在调整教育背景对表现的影响时，GED 应具有多少年的适当等效学历，但使用 12 年的时间可能会通过暗示更高的前期能力水平，从而更容易识别更多的神经心理弱点领域。
