Measurement of teen dating violence attitudes: an item response theory evaluation of differential item functioning according to gender.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Accurate assessment of attitudes about intimate partner violence is important for evaluation of prevention and early intervention programs. Assessment of attitudes about cross-gender interactions is particularly susceptible to bias because it requires specifying the gender of the perpetrator and the victim. As it is likely that respondents will tend to identify with the same-gender actor, items and scales assessing attitudes about intimate partner violence may not have equivalent measurement properties for male and female respondents. This article examines data from 2,575 high school students who participated in a teen-dating violence intervention study. The majority of participants were Latino (91%), and the sample was nearly evenly split with respect to gender (51% female). Items from two scales (boy-on-girl violence, 4 items; girl-on-boy violence, 5 items) reflecting teens' attitudes about dating violence were calibrated with the graded item response theory (IRT) model and evaluated for differential item functioning (DIF) by gender. A total of three items, two from the girl-on-boy violence scale and one from the boy-on-girl violence scale, were identified as functioning differently for girls and boys. In all cases where DIF was detected, the item's attitudinal statement was easier to accept for the gender group that was portrayed as victim rather than perpetrator. For both scales, accounting for the identified DIF influenced inferences about the magnitude of mean differences in attitudes between boys and girls. These results support the use of IRT scores that account for DIF to minimize measurement error and improve inferences about gender differences in attitudes about dating violence.
منابع مشابه
Improving the Measurement of Socially Unacceptable Attitudes and Behaviors With Item Response Theory
Assessment of socially unacceptable behaviors and attitudes via self-report is likely to yield skewed data that may be vulnerable to measurement non-invariance. Item response theory (IRT) can help address these measurement challenges. This paper illustrates application of IRT to data from a teen dating violence intervention study. Three factors reflecting teens’ attitudes about dating violence ...
متن کاملDifferential Item Functioning (DIF) in Terms of Gender in the Reading Comprehension Subtest of a High-Stakes Test
Validation is an important enterprise especially when a test is a high stakes one. Demographic variables like gender and field of study can affect test results and interpretations. Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is a way to make sure that a test does not favor one group of test takers over the others. This study investigated DIF in terms of gender in the reading comprehension subtest (35 i...
متن کاملA confirmatory study of Differential Item Functioning on EFL reading comprehension
The present study aimed at investigating DIF sources on an EFL reading comprehension test. Accordingly, 2 DIF detection methods, logistic regression (LR) and item response theory (IRT), were used to flag emergent DIF of 203 (110 females & 93 males) Iranian EFL examinees’ performance on a reading comprehension test. Seven hypothetical DIF sources were examin...
متن کاملSelecting the Best Fit Model in Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment: Differential Item Functioning Detection in the Reading Comprehension of the PhD Nationwide Admission Test
This study was an attemptto provide detailed information of the strengths and weaknesses of test takers‟ real ability through cognitive diagnostic assessment, and to detect differential item functioning in each test item. The rationale for using CDA was that it estimates an item‟s discrimination power, whereas clas- sical test theory or item response theory depicts between rather within item mu...
متن کاملEvaluation Psychometric Characteristics of the Persian Version of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey Using polytomous Item Response Model
Goal: Researchers in the field of science education believe that peoplechr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s attitudes about learning will have a significant impact on their future learning and what they learn from science will not be unrelated to their views and attitudes. Accordingly, most questionnaires have been developed to measure attitudes toward science, especially about physics learning attitudes...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Journal of interpersonal violence
دوره 24 8 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009