Psychometric properties of the NEPSY-II affect recognition subtest in a preschool sample: a Rasch modeling approach

Abstract

Objective: Understanding a child’s ability to decode emotion expressions is important to allow early interventions for potential difficulties in social and emotional functioning. This study applied the Rasch model to investigate the psychometric properties of the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest, a U.S. normed measure for 3–16 year olds which assesses the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. Method: Data were collected from 1222 children attending preschools in Singapore. We first performed the Rasch analysis with the raw item data, and examined the technical qualities and difficulty pattern of the studied items. We subsequently investigated the relation of the estimated affect recognition ability from the Rasch analysis to a teacher-reported measure of a child’s behaviors, emotions, and relationships. Potential gender differences were also examined. Results: The Rasch model fits our data well. Also, the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest was found to have reasonable technical qualities, expected item difficulty pattern, and desired association with the external measure of children’s behaviors, emotions, and relationships for both boys and girls. Conclusions: Overall, findings from this study suggest that the NEPSY-II Affect Recognition subtest is a promising measure of young children’s affect recognition ability. Suggestions for future test improvement and research were discussed.