Abstract
The study focused on the gender differential item functioning in Slovak version of the Intelligence Structure Test 2000 - Revised (Amthauer et al., 2011). The sample included 744 middle and high school students with mean age of 16.94 years. The non-parametric method SIBTEST for identification of items with differential functioning was used in order to detect uniform and non-uniform DIF. The analysis showed that the I-S-T 2000 R includes several items with DIF favoring either males or females, but in most subtests, with no or small effect on differences between genders. Substantial but nonsignificant effect of DIF items on subtest score was found for Verbal Analogy, which contained six items with DIF all favoring females. These items included verbal content related to areas more common for females such as diet or food. The results suggest that specific content of verbal intelligence items can be a potential source of gender bias.
Highlights
The question of test validity is of a great importance in intelligence testing
In five of these subtests, females scored higher than males, which does not correspond with previous findings suggesting higher general intelligence in males (Jackson & Rushton, 2006; Irwing & Lynn, 2005)
Slovak version of the Amthauer’s Intelligence Structure Test 2000 - R shows significant gender differences in a sample of adolescents, since in several subtests females scored higher than males
Summary
The question of test validity is of a great importance in intelligence testing. Possible favoritism towards one of the groups tested for intelligence disturbs test validity and can be a source of serious violation of fair testing (AERA, APA & NCME, 1999). Several studies confirmed that one of the sources of DIF can be found in language skills and language origin (Martiniello, 2009; Roomaney & Koch, 2013; Schaap, 2011) All these studies suggested that the DIF approach is a good tool for the identification of bias at item and test level. On the other hand, Jackson and Rushton (2006) concluded that in a sample of 102 516 subjects (17-18 years old adolescents), there is a clear evidence of small but non-trivial differences in general intelligence favoring males This difference had a pointbiserial effect of 0.12 (equivalent to 3.63 IQ points) and was confirmed across all socioeconomic levels and ethnic groups.
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