Discrepancies between self-reported years of education and estimated reading level: Potential implications for neuropsychologists

Current standard neuropsychology practice is to examine normative sample performance for systematic influences of demographic variables and then to correct for these influences. The most commonly examined demographic variables are age, gender, and years of education, and current normative databases frequently take these into consideration. However, there is a literature to suggest that self-reported years of educational attainment may not be an accurate reflection of some patients' level of performance and may actually overpredict grade estimates based on reading level. Many of these studies have focused on older samples of individuals who were free of neurological or psychiatric symptoms. In this study, a younger sample (average age = 44.5) of African American (N = 62) and Caucasian (N = 133) patients referred to an outpatient psychiatry unit was examined. Results suggest that the prior findings of a significant discrepancy between self-reported years of education and Wide Range Achievement Test-3rd Edition Reading Recognition performance hold for a younger sample with a broad range of clinical diagnoses. How these findings might influence clinical practice are discussed.