Developing Scales to Measure the Gender Roles of Children and Adults in Jordanian Society

Abstract

Objectives: The study aims to develop two scales to measure the gender-related roles for both children and adults in the Jordanian culture, and to find indicators about the (psychometric) characteristics and the effectiveness of their items.
 Methods: The two scales of gender roles were developed using standard procedures according to the classical theory of measurement. Then the scale version of children was applied to a sample consisting of 1050 children (648 male, 402 female), aged between (4 to 18) years, while the adults’ version of the scale, was applied to a sample of 1080 individuals (517 male, 571 female), aged between (19) and (60) years. Individuals in both samples were selected by a simple random method, taking into account the representation of the gender variable, the monthly income of the child's family in the case of children, and the monthly income of the respondent.
 Results: The discrimination coefficients (correlation of performance on the item with performance on the scale on which it falls) ranged between 0.11 and 0.78 in the case of the adult version and between 0.13 and 0.83 in the case of the children version. In addition, four indicators of the reliability of the scales were found (reliability using the test-retest method, the internal consistency method / split-half, the internal consistency method /item statistics (Cronbach alpha), and reliability through the standard error of measurement, whose values were somewhat low. Three indicators of the validity of the scales were also reached (construct validity through factor analysis, prediction of the typical gender role of the respondent, and validity through the correspondence between the classification of the subject according to the scores he obtained on the Jordanian scales of roles related to sex and his gender).
 Conclusion: The gender role scales have adequate psychometric properties, which make their future use reliable and objective.