This study investigated the effect of item position on descriptive statistics, psychometric information, and factor structure of the Pediatric Symptoms Checklist 17-item social-emotional screening instrument (PSC-17). The goal was to determine whether item position, either grouped by factor or mixed across constructs, produced similar results.…

Many psychological scales written in the Likert format include reverse worded (RW) items in order to control acquiescence bias. However, studies have shown that RW items often contaminate the factor structure of the scale by creating one or more method factors. The present study examines an alternative scale format, called the Expanded format,…

Measures of broad fluid abilities including verbal, quantitative, and figural reasoning are commonly used in the K-12 school context for a variety of purposes. However, differentiation of these domains is difficult for young children (grades K-2) who lack basic linguistic and mathematical literacy. This study examined the latent factor structure…

Item overlap coefficient (IOC) formulas are discussed, providing six warnings about their calculation and interpretation and some explanations of why item overlap influences the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory factor structures. (SLD)

Much of the effort involved in a major restructuring of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Aptitude Test was intended to result in the creation of an analytical module to supplement the verbal and quantitative sections of the test, thus providing broadened measurement. Factor extension analysis was used in the present study to investigate…

Using three different forms of a 61-item administrator/supervisor questionnaire, the effects of both order and grouping were examined in separate analyses. For low-inference type items, factor structures obtained from survey data appear to be affected by item order, and, to a lesser extent, by grouping items. (Author/PN)

The sources of multidimensionality found in several different forms of a licensure examination were studied. The relationship between one source of multidimensionality, differential item functioning (DIF) (or factors producing DIF), and content characteristics was explored in an attempt to isolate aspects of training or curriculum that could…

The importance of the presentation order of items on Likert-type scales was studied. It was proposed that subjects tend to choose the first alternative acceptable to them from among the response categories, so that a primacy effect can be predicted. The effects of reversing the order of the response scale on the latent factor structure underlying…

A questionnaire concerning attitudes toward the importance of communication skills and toward different modes of communication was administered to 290 incoming freshmen at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Students responded to one of two types of a 38-item questionnaire: a multiple choice, or Likert-type (strongly agree...strongly…