Factors Associated with Maori Performance on the WAIS-IV

Neuropsychological tests are routinely used to assess Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, yet very few investigations of the psychometric properties of these tests with this population have been conducted. This paper focuses on factors that may impact performance of Maori adults on neuropsychological testing. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) was administered to a sample of 284 Maori stratified for age (between 16 years and 90 years) and gender in order to establish a Maori normative data set. The sample who primarily spoke English as their first language were recruited from a range of urban, regional and rural areas in New Zealand to obtain representation of the main Maori Iwi (tribes). Analysis of test results suggests acculturation, education, income, and, "a culturally positive experience" may have accounted for some of the variance in test performance.