Are there sex differences in the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Forth Edition?

•The WISC-IV structure is equivalent across the females and males.•No differences were in latent factor and observed means of Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory.•No differences were in the latent factor and observed means of General Intelligence.•With latent factors males were higher in Verbal Comprehension and females higher in Processing Speed.•With observed means females were higher in Processing Speed.

In the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Forth Edition (WISC-IV), the manual reports several confirmatory factor analyses in support of the instrument's latent factor structure, but no information about eventually sex differences. The present study aims to investigate the factorial invariance and factor mean differences of the hierarchical model of WISC-IV, between Italian males and females. The overall results from this study generally support both configural and factorial invariance of the WISC-IV when the 10 core subtest are administered, so the second-order WISC-IV structure is equivalent across the females and males. In estimating latent mean differences on the Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory, Processing Speed and General Intelligence, the results was that the males were higher in the Verbal Comprehension and the females were higher in the Processing Speed. These results were partially confirmed by results on observed means differences. No significant differences in the latent factor means and observed means of Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and General Intelligence were found.