,
Ghadeer Abdalhaleem Nimer Almustafa,
Edward Dutton,
Guy Madison,
Ismael Salamah Albursan,
Mohammad Farhan Al Qudah,
Mohammed Mohammed Ateik AL khadher,
Yousif Balil Bashir Maki,
Mohammad Adnan Ejbara
There is growing evidence that the Flynn Effect, the secular rise in IQ scores that was observed across the twentieth century, has reached a plateau and has even gone into reverse in many Western countries. However, several recent studies report an ongoing Flynn Effect in developing countries, especially in those in the Arab world. Here we compare two samples from 2012 (N = 350) and 2021 (N = 1,491) of children in the Kingdom of Jordan. The children were 4, 5 and 6 years old and were randomly selected from kindergartens in the north, central and south of Jordan. They were administered the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), a test which is designed for this age group. Factor analyses exhibited very similar factors loadings across samples and subtests, indicating high construct validity. Comparing effect sizes for the difference between the samples in both total and subtest scores, we find no evidence of any change in intelligence between the two samples. We explore the possible reasons for this apparent cessation of the Flynn Effect in Jordan among which may be the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2021 sample. We conclude that there is little reason to think that this would have interfered with how representative the sample was.
| Published in | Biomedical Statistics and Informatics (Volume 10, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12 |
| Page(s) | 31-38 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Flynn Effect, WPPSI, Intelligence, Jordan
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APA Style
Bakhiet, S. F. A., Almustafa, G. A. N., Dutton, E., Madison, G., Albursan, I. S., et al. (2025). No Flynn Effect in Jordan 2012-2021. Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, 10(2), 31-38. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12
ACS Style
Bakhiet, S. F. A.; Almustafa, G. A. N.; Dutton, E.; Madison, G.; Albursan, I. S., et al. No Flynn Effect in Jordan 2012-2021. Biomed. Stat. Inform. 2025, 10(2), 31-38. doi: 10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12,
author = {Salaheldin Farah Attallah Bakhiet and Ghadeer Abdalhaleem Nimer Almustafa and Edward Dutton and Guy Madison and Ismael Salamah Albursan and Mohammad Farhan Al Qudah and Mohammed Mohammed Ateik AL khadher and Yousif Balil Bashir Maki and Mohammad Adnan Ejbara},
title = {No Flynn Effect in Jordan 2012-2021
},
journal = {Biomedical Statistics and Informatics},
volume = {10},
number = {2},
pages = {31-38},
doi = {10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.bsi.20251002.12},
abstract = {There is growing evidence that the Flynn Effect, the secular rise in IQ scores that was observed across the twentieth century, has reached a plateau and has even gone into reverse in many Western countries. However, several recent studies report an ongoing Flynn Effect in developing countries, especially in those in the Arab world. Here we compare two samples from 2012 (N = 350) and 2021 (N = 1,491) of children in the Kingdom of Jordan. The children were 4, 5 and 6 years old and were randomly selected from kindergartens in the north, central and south of Jordan. They were administered the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), a test which is designed for this age group. Factor analyses exhibited very similar factors loadings across samples and subtests, indicating high construct validity. Comparing effect sizes for the difference between the samples in both total and subtest scores, we find no evidence of any change in intelligence between the two samples. We explore the possible reasons for this apparent cessation of the Flynn Effect in Jordan among which may be the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2021 sample. We conclude that there is little reason to think that this would have interfered with how representative the sample was.
},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - No Flynn Effect in Jordan 2012-2021 AU - Salaheldin Farah Attallah Bakhiet AU - Ghadeer Abdalhaleem Nimer Almustafa AU - Edward Dutton AU - Guy Madison AU - Ismael Salamah Albursan AU - Mohammad Farhan Al Qudah AU - Mohammed Mohammed Ateik AL khadher AU - Yousif Balil Bashir Maki AU - Mohammad Adnan Ejbara Y1 - 2025/05/22 PY - 2025 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12 DO - 10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12 T2 - Biomedical Statistics and Informatics JF - Biomedical Statistics and Informatics JO - Biomedical Statistics and Informatics SP - 31 EP - 38 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-8728 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.bsi.20251002.12 AB - There is growing evidence that the Flynn Effect, the secular rise in IQ scores that was observed across the twentieth century, has reached a plateau and has even gone into reverse in many Western countries. However, several recent studies report an ongoing Flynn Effect in developing countries, especially in those in the Arab world. Here we compare two samples from 2012 (N = 350) and 2021 (N = 1,491) of children in the Kingdom of Jordan. The children were 4, 5 and 6 years old and were randomly selected from kindergartens in the north, central and south of Jordan. They were administered the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), a test which is designed for this age group. Factor analyses exhibited very similar factors loadings across samples and subtests, indicating high construct validity. Comparing effect sizes for the difference between the samples in both total and subtest scores, we find no evidence of any change in intelligence between the two samples. We explore the possible reasons for this apparent cessation of the Flynn Effect in Jordan among which may be the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the 2021 sample. We conclude that there is little reason to think that this would have interfered with how representative the sample was. VL - 10 IS - 2 ER -
Department of Special Education, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Early Intervention Department, Alshfallah Center, Doha, Qatar
Asbiro University, Lodz, Poland
Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Department of Psychology, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Department of Psychology, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Early Intervention Department, Alshfallah Center, Doha, Qatar
Department of Special Education, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Testing Center, Deanahip of General Studies, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
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