The Study of Intellectual Ability and Scholastic Achievement of Institutionalized Men Drug Addicts Belonging to Three Different Racial-Ethnic Groups

Abstract

The Raven Standard Progressive Matrices and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills tests were administered to 364 institutionalized men drug addicts. In addition, information was collected on racial-ethnic background (White, Black, Mexican-American), school grade completed, and years away from school of all the subjects. Means, standard deviations, F-analysis of variances and t tests between ethnic racial groups were calculated. Results indicate that in spite of overlap, the White always received significantly higher mean scores than the other two groups. White and Black dropped out of school practically at the same grade level (between 10th and 11th), while Mexican-Americans dropped out of school earlier (at the 9th grade). Recommendations based on these findings are discussed.