Use of interest inventories with Native Americans: A case for local norms.

Examined the appropriateness and usefulness of the Kuder General Interest Survey, Form E (Kuder-E), with a homogeneous Native American population by comparing the distribution of scores obtained on the Kuder-E by 66 male and 68 female 9th-grade NAs with the corresponding norms, by sex and grade in school, provided in the test manual. A comparatively large proportion of the NAs produced unacceptable scores on the verification scale. Comparisons on the 10 interest scales of the Kuder-E revealed statistically significant and substantial differences on 6 scales for males and 7 scales for females. In the NA sample, males and females differed on 6 of the interest scales. Results raise questions about the appropriateness of the items on the Kuder-E for the population investigated and suggest the advantage of using local norms for interpretation with homogeneous and divergent cultural groups. Conclusions are discussed in terms of the construction of the Kuder-E and within the context of nondiscrimination in interest measurement. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)