Abstract
This study aimed to determine the presence of sex-related differential item functioning (DIF) in Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) Test. The research design was a comparative study, where boys formed the focal group and girls formed the reference group. The software used was SPSS-v26, and binary data of focal and reference groups were analyzed using jMetrik software to detect DIF according to the Mantel-Haenszel method. A total of 1032 students (49.6% boys and 50.4% girls), 570 from intermediate school and 462 from secondary school, were selected from 24 schools using a stratified random-sampling procedure. The statistical analyses showed that the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) Test was one-dimensional. The results showed that, of five moderate DIF items, four items favored the focal group (boys), and one item favored the reference group (girls). The results also showed two large DIF items; the direction of the one item favored the reference group (girls), and the direction of the second item favor the focal group (boys). The findings showed that there were several unbiased items, but some were clearly biased against female performance. According to these findings, we recommend reanalyzing the data using methods depending on the item response theory, such as the logistic regression, simultaneous item bias test (SIB) or IRT-likelihood ratio (IRT-LR) methods to confirm the results seen here. Keywords : Differential Item Functioning (DIF), Bias Item, Reference Group, Focal Group DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-29-10 Publication date: October 31 st 2020
Highlights
Tests that are used in education and psychology for various purposes should meet specific standards, including validity, reliability, and practicality
Eight items from the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test gave numbers of 9, 10, 17, 18, 31, 42, 44, and 45, suggesting differential functioning according to the sex of the student, where the data showed that the values of Mantel-Haenszel statistic for these items were statistically significant at α < 0.05
There is a sex difference in the SPM Test (Colom and Garcia, 2002); given that this test is based on abstract figures and that boys have on average a higher spatial ability than girls (Voyer et al, 1995), we predicted that some items may be easier for boys
Summary
Tests that are used in education and psychology for various purposes should meet specific standards, including validity, reliability, and practicality. These characteristics are the fundamental principles of measurement and are the social values used by decision-makers in addition to measurement. Despite the importance of these features, they are not sufficient for judging the test items' validity for their designated purpose. This is because the response to the test items may be affected by factors other than the ability of the examined individuals, like gender, race, place of residence, language, or socioeconomic status; which may all affect the test results negatively, and subsequently the decisions based on them. The items are described as having differential functioning towards a group or a category out of others (Jensen, 1980)
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