This paper presents results from an assessment of cognitive ability and everyday functioning in a group of adult women with Turner syndrome (TUS). Twenty-three TUS women were compared with 23 matched controls with constitutional short stature (CSS). A subgroup of 10 TUS women were compared with their nondisabled female siblings. On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test-Revised (Wechsler, 1981), no significant group differences were found in Verbal IQ. There were significant group differences for Performance IQ and Full Scale IQ, largely due to specific deficits in the area of spatial and mathematical ability. These difficulties were also evident on the Benton Visual Retention Test-Revised (Benton, 1974). TUS individuals had significantly lower educational attainment than CSS controls but did not differ from their siblings. TUS individuals had significantly lower occupational attainment than the women in both comparison groups.
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1. Statistical procedures are chi squares and twotailed t tests except where noted.
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2. Since planning a party tests ability to handle a social rather than a spatial or numerical task, this item was eliminated from the current analysis. Planning a vacation was retained because it tests ability and willingness to travel independently in an unfamiliar place.
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4. Because a number of the individuals with TUS and CSS individuals had not completed their education, we adopted a "best estimate" method of predicting their educational and career attainment. For subjects who had completed their education, actual educational level and occupational status according to the Hollingshead Four-Factor Index of Social Status were used. If subjects were still students, their educational and occupational goals were used. If subjects were not employed because they were housewives, the Hollingshead rating for their last job was used for occupation. Four of the women with TUS, eight of the CSS women, and one of the siblings had not yet completed their education at the time of the evaluation. Two of the siblings were not employed because they were housewives.
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