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...

Title of Dissertation: EXAMINING DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING FROM A LATENT CLASS PERSPECTIVE Karen Samuelsen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: C. Mitchell Dayton Department of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation Current approaches for studying differential item functioning (DIF) using manifest groups are problematic since these groups are treated as homogeneous in natur...

This study was to use differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to examine if there were items in the Mental, Emotional, and Bodily Toughness Inventory (MeBTough) functioning differently across gender and athletic membership. A total of 444 male (56.3%) and female (43.7%) participants (30.9% athletes and 69.1% non-athletes) responded to the MeBTough items. Using Mantel-Haenszel and SIBTEST m...

We investigated measurement equivalence in two antisocial behavior scales (i.e., one scale for adolescents and a second scale for young adults) by examining differential item functioning (DIF) for respondents from single-parent (n = 109) and two-parent families (n = 447). Even though one item in the scale for adolescents and two items in the scale for young adults showed significant DIF, the tw...

Rationale In order to avoid response bias such as agreement bias or acquiescence, it was a common recommendation that both positively-and negatively-worded items should be included in survey that the practice of using positively-and negatively-worded items may introduce systematic measurement errors that disrupt analyses and interpretations of the results (DiStefano & Motl, 2006; Quilty, Oakman...