Differential Item Functioning for the Perception of Family Support Inventory

Abstract

Part of the researches about family involves the Family Support, the basic construct of the Perception of Family Support Inventory (IPSF). Several studies using this instrument can be found, but without conclusive results on the gender difference in the construct. One way to verify this bias is through differential item functioning (DIF) and in this regard, this article aimed to verify whether there is DIF by gender for the IPSF, based from a database with 1322 subjects. Three items showed a DIF presence favoring the female group and four favoring the male group. By the principle of equality it can initially indicate the equilibrium state of the bias, however an additional analysis of comparison of the Thetas before and after anchoring of the items without DIF, it was found that in practice, the bias may be related to external aspects of the sample and not to the test items, ensuring its psychometric characteristics.