Differential Item Functioning in Attitude Assessment

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-135
Author(s):  
George A. Johanson
Keyword(s):  
Program Evaluation ◽  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Attitude Assessment ◽  
Evaluation Practice ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Binary Format

Differential item functioning (DIF) is not often seen in the literature on attitude assessment. A brief discussion of DIF and methods of implementation is followed by an illustrative example from a program evaluation, using an attitude-towards-science scale with 1550 children in grades one through six. An item exhibiting substantial DIF with respect to gender was detected using the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. In a second example, data from workshop evaluations with 1682 adults were recoded to a binary format, and it was found that an item suspected of functioning differentially with respect to age groups was, in fact, not doing so. Implications for evaluation practice are discussed.

scholarly journals Studying Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition Through Differential Item Functioning Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 774
Author(s):  
Antonella Lopez ◽  
Alessandro O. Caffò ◽  
Luigi Tinella ◽  
Albert Postma ◽  
Andrea Bosco
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Differential Impact ◽  
Healthy Human ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Differential Item Functioning Analysis ◽  
Group Memberships

Background: In the field of spatial cognition, the study of individual differences represents a typical research topic. Gender and age have been prominently investigated. A promising statistical technique used to identify the different responses to items in relation to different group memberships is the Differential Item Functioning Analysis (DIF). The aim of the present study was to investigate the DIF of the Landmark positioning on a Map (LPM) task, across age groups (young and elderly) and gender, in a sample of 400 healthy human participants. Methods: LPM is a hometown map completion test based on well-known and familiar landmarks used to assess allocentric mental representations. DIF was assessed on LPM items two times: on categorical (i.e., positions) and coordinate (i.e., distances) scores, separately. Results: When positions and distances were difficult to assess with respect to the intended reference point, the probability to endorse the items seemed to get worse for the elderly compared to the younger participants. Instead other features of landmarks (high pleasantness, restorativeness) seemed to improve the elderly performance. A gender-related improvement of probability to endorse distance estimation of some landmarks, favoring women, emerged, probably associated with their repeated experiences with those landmarks. Overall, the complexity of the task seemed to have a differential impact on young and elderly people while gender-oriented activities and places seemed to have a differential impact on men and women. Conclusions: For the first time DIF was applied to a spatial mental representation task, based on the schematic sketch maps of the participants. The application of DIF to the study of individual differences in spatial cognition should become a systematic routine to early detect differential items, improving knowledge, as well as experimental control, on individual differences.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Psychometric Properties and Differential Item Functioning of the Dental Anxiety Inventory (DAI-36) Questionnaire using Iterative Hybrid Ordinal Logistic Regression

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elahe Allahyari ◽  
Narges Roustaei
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Dental Anxiety ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Ordinal Logistic Regression ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Background: Dental anxiety is a major dental problem. The difference of dental anxiety between groups may be reflect of the perception of individual of the items of questionnaire at the same level of the underlying dental anxiety. The propose of this study was to assess whether the Dental Anxiety Inventory (DAI-36) showed differential item functioning (DIF) by gender, age and education levels.Methods: By an iterative hybrid ordinal logistic regression model, we assessed measurement equivalence of DAI-36 items across gender, education, and age groups. All analysis was run by lordif package in R3.1.3 software for 950 participants.Results: The chi-square statistics declared 7, 7, and 4 non-uniform DIF items, and 2, 5, and 4 uniform DIF items across gender, education, and age groups, respectively. ΔR2 was always lower than 0.07 in all uniform and non-uniform DIF items. However, Δβ1 revealed significant uniform DIF in items 1 and 8 across gender ( Δβ1(item 1)=0.0137, Δβ1(item 8)=0.0124) and items 22 and 27 across age categories ( Δβ1(item 22)=0.0110, Δβ1(item 27)=0.0136). Conclusions: DIF items had no large magnitude or cancel out each other, so statements phrased in DAI-36 questionnaire have equivalent meaning across respondents, regardless of their gender, education, and age groups.

scholarly journals Differential item functioning analysis of the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) across gender and age groups

Psychologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-105
Author(s):  
Elahe Allahyari
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Emotional Quotient ◽  
Reality Testing ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Emotional Quotient Inventory ◽  
Differential Item Functioning Analysis ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Clinically Significant

There has been a heated debate on emotional intelligence (EI) and, more particularly, on the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) measuring all dimensions of emotional intelligence. To ensure measurement equivalence of EQ-i, the present article evaluated whether statements phrased in EQ-i questionnaire have equivalent meaning across respondents, regardless of their sex and age group membership. For 2,078 participants, three EI subscale (item 50 in reality testing, items 4 and 19 in stress tolerance, and items 7, 52, and 82 in interpersonal) for age groups had clinically significant Differential item functioning (DIF). So previous observed associations between EI and age might be misleading and deserve further study after removing or replacing DIF items.

Erfassung von mathematischen Kompetenzen im Vorschulalter mit MARKO-D

Diagnostica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Ariana Garrote ◽  
Elisabeth Moser Opitz
Keyword(s):  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Item Functioning

Zusammenfassung. In dieser Studie wurde der Test MARKO-D (Mathematik- und Rechenkonzepte im Vorschulalter–Diagnose) mit einer Stichprobe von Kindern aus der deutschsprachigen Schweiz ( N = 555) im ersten und zweiten Kindergartenjahr erprobt und es wurde analysiert, ob sich die Altersnormen der deutschen Stichprobe auf die Schweiz übertragen lassen. Zudem wurde der Test mit einer Teilstichprobe ( n = 87) hinsichtlich Messinvarianz über die Zeit untersucht. Die Ergebnisse des eindimensionalen Rasch-Modells zeigen, dass das Instrument für die Schweiz geeignet ist. Die Testleistungen hängen jedoch vom Kindergartenbesuch ab. Für die Schweiz müssten deshalb nebst Altersnormen auch Normen pro Kindergartenhalbjahr verwendet werden. Die Analyse mittels Differential Item Functioning ergab, dass 17 von 55 Items von großer Messvarianz über die Zeit betroffen sind. Um das Instrument für Längsschnittuntersuchungen einsetzen zu können, müsste es weiterentwickelt werden.

Differential Item Functioning in Brief Instruments of Disordered Eating

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 823-833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desiree Thielemann ◽  
Felicitas Richter ◽  
Bernd Strauss ◽  
Elmar Braehler ◽  
Uwe Altmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Differential Item Functioning ◽  
Disordered Eating ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Young Female ◽  
Eating Attitudes ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
German Population ◽  
Test Fairness ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Multiple Indicator

Abstract. Most instruments for the assessment of disordered eating were developed and validated in young female samples. However, they are often used in heterogeneous general population samples. Therefore, brief instruments of disordered eating should assess the severity of disordered eating equally well between individuals with different gender, age, body mass index (BMI), and socioeconomic status (SES). Differential item functioning (DIF) of two brief instruments of disordered eating (SCOFF, Eating Attitudes Test [EAT-8]) was modeled in a representative sample of the German population ( N = 2,527) using a multigroup item response theory (IRT) and a multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) structural equation model (SEM) approach. No DIF by age was found in both questionnaires. Three items of the EAT-8 showed DIF across gender, indicating that females are more likely to agree than males, given the same severity of disordered eating. One item of the EAT-8 revealed slight DIF by BMI. DIF with respect to the SCOFF seemed to be negligible. Both questionnaires are equally fair across people with different age and SES. The DIF by gender that we found with respect to the EAT-8 as screening instrument may be also reflected in the use of different cutoff values for men and women. In general, both brief instruments assessing disordered eating revealed their strengths and limitations concerning test fairness for different groups.

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