Item Wording Effects in Psychological Measures: Do Early Literacy Skills Matter?

Abstract

While the inclusion of both positively and negatively worded items is a common practice in scales, using positively and negatively worded items together may threaten the validity of a scale. Several studies have been devoted to investigating the effects of item wording methods. The current study investigated item wording effects on the responses of 4028 Turkish fifth-grade students, who responded to the Students Confidence in Mathematics (SCM) and Students Confidence in Science (SCS) scales. The role of early literacy-related variables (i.e., early literacy activities undertaken before primary school, student performance on reading literacy tasks upon entering primary school, and duration of the children’s pre-primary school attendance) on item wording effects was also examined. The investigations were conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and the correlated trait–correlated method minus one CFA- CTC(M-1) model, derived from the correlated traits-correlated methods framework. The results indicate that significant item wording effects existed in both scales. Moreover, a significant and positive effect was found in both scales relating to early literacy activities undertaken before school, but no effects were found relating to student performance on reading literacy tasks upon entering primary school or duration of the children’s pre-primary school attendance. Overall, the study suggests that researchers and practitioners should consider potential effects when including both positively and negatively worded items in scales, especially scales designed for younger students.