Do Socio-demographic Characteristics Influence the Performance of Children on Raven Progressive Matrices in Enugu, Nigeria?

Background: Poor socioeconomic status and lower level of maternal education have been identified to contribute significantly to lower cognitive function of HIV-positive children. This study was designed to determine if there are significant associations between performance in Raven Progressive Matrices (RPM) scores and socio-demographic factors.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 100 school-aged children seen at the Children Outpatient Clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital. Cognitive function was assessed using the Raven Progressive Matrices. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 19.

Results: Mean RPM scores of males and females were 31.8 ± 13.4 and 33.7 ± 12.2. Fifty-six children were above average/superior while 44 performed at or below average on RPM cognitive test. Twenty-one of 23 children (91.3%) children from upper social class, 27 of 48 (56.3%) from middle social class and only 8 of 29 (27.6%) from lower social class performed above average or superior on the RPM test (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Low socio-economic status and poor maternal literacy were significantly associated with below RPM scores whereas scores were not influenced by gender.