Differential Item Functioning Across Race and Ethnicity for the Emotional and Behavioral Screener.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2018
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000224
Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the measurement invariance of items from the Emotional and Behavioral Screener (EBS) across racial and ethnic groups and assess the impact of differential item functioning (DIF) on test scores from the EBS. Participants were 4,856 first-grade students (49% female) who were diverse with regard to race and ethnicity (45% African American, 41% Hispanic/Latino, and 14% Caucasian). Classroom teachers rated each student on the EBS during the fall semester screening window. Item response theory modeling was combined with ordinal regression to investigate the presence and impact of differential item functioning across 3 race and ethnicity groups. The findings suggest that items from the EBS exhibit small to negligible levels of DIF, and the limited DIF that was present does not significantly impact overall scores. Researchers and practitioners can have confidence that scores from the EBS are relatively unaffected by test bias when measuring the emotional and behavioral risk of young students from African American, Hispanic/Latino, or Caucasian backgrounds.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
School Psychology Quarterly, v. 33, issue 3, p. 399-407
Scholar Commons Citation
Lambert, Matthew C.; January, Stacy-Ann A.; Cress, Cynthia J.; Epstein, Michael H.; and Cullinan, Douglas, "Differential Item Functioning Across Race and Ethnicity for the Emotional and Behavioral Screener." (2018). Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications. 246.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/246
