Latent factor structure of the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System: a confirmatory factor analysis in a Chinese setting.
The Chinese D-N CAS keeps its four-factor shape and can flag ADHD and reading issues in Mandarin-speaking kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers gave the Chinese version of the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System to children. They checked if the test kept the same four brain skills the English version measures.
Kids with ADHD, reading problems, and typical kids all took the test twice. The team ran numbers to see if scores stayed steady and if the test could tell the groups apart.
What they found
The four-factor structure held up in Mandarin. Test-retest scores were solid. The test cleanly split clinical kids from typical peers.
In plain words, the Chinese D-N CAS works the same way it does in English.
How this fits with other research
Tani et al. (2010) and Ohnishi et al. (2010) did the same kind of check on Japanese ADHD rating scales. All three papers show East-Asian kids can use Western tests without breaking the factor structure.
Yu-Lau et al. (2013) later repeated the trick with the Chinese Autism Quotient. Together these studies build a streak: Chinese translations keep their original bones if you do careful back-translation and cultural tweaks.
No contradictions pop up. Each paper just widens the shelf of trusted Chinese-language tools.
Why it matters
If you serve Mandarin-speaking families, you can grab the Chinese D-N CAS and trust the numbers it gives you. Use it to spot planning or attention gaps in kids referred for ADHD or reading woes, then write goals that match the four cognitive areas. One practical move: give the test in the child’s first language, show parents the same four-color profile picture used in English, and watch them instantly understand where skill gaps sit.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study aims to measure the psychometric properties of the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System (D-N CAS) and to determine its clinical utility in a Chinese context. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the Chinese version of the D-N CAS among a group of 567, normally developed children. Test-retest reliability was examined in a random subsample of 30 children at a five-week interval. The clinical discrimination of the D-N CAS was also examined by comparing children with and without ADHD (18 children in each group) and by comparing children with and without Chinese reading disabilities (18 children in each group). The current Chinese sample demonstrated a four-factor solution for cognitive performance among children with normal development: Planning, Attention, Simultaneous processing and Successive processing (χ2(48)=91.90, p=.000; χ2/df=1.92, RMSEA=.050, GFI=.966, CFI=.954). Moreover, all subtests of the battery demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability (r=.72-.90, p<.01) at a five-week interval among the subjects of the small subsample. Children with ADHD performed significantly worse than normal children on the Attention factor (p<.001) and the Planning factor (p<.05) of the D-N CAS, and children with Chinese reading disabilities performed significantly worse than normal children on the Simultaneous processing factor (p<.01), the Successive processing factor (p<.001) and the Planning factor (p<.05) of the D-N CAS. These findings suggested that the current four-factor structure of the D-N CAS was similar to the original factor structure of the test. The latent factor of the D-N CAS was fairly stable across the cultures. Moreover, the D-N CAS can distinguish between children with ADHD or Chinese reading disabilities and normally developed children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.04.005