The Impact of Item Phrasing on the Validity of Attitude Scales for Elementary School Children

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of item phrasing on the validity of a Likert-type attitude scale. Three content similar scales were composed of 15 items, either all positive, all negative, or a mixture of positive and negative items. Five hundred twenty-two students in grades 4-6 responded to one of the three forms. Results from the all positive and negative forms indicated that item means, variances, and factor structures differed significantly. Inspection of item means suggested that it was difficult for the students to indicate agreement by disagreeing with a negative statement. Analyses of the mixed phrasing form indicated factors based upon item phrasing, not item content. Taken together, the results suggest that the technique of balancing item phrasing when used with elementary students appears to affect adversely the validity of attitude measurement.

Response Effects in Surveys on Children and Adolescents: The Effect of Number of Response Options, Negative Wording, and Neutral Mid-Point

“…This result is surprising because it is not in concordance with the satisficing theory and not with empirical results found with adults (Andrews, 1984;Knäuper et al, 1997) and children (Benson & Hocevar, 1985;Marsh, 1986). That this result does not appear in our study can be the result of the definition of our dependent variable as stability over time.…”

Measure Twice, Cut down Error: A Process for Enhancing the Validity of Survey Scales

“…For example, rather than developing three separate items to address teachers' enthusiasm, warmth, and communication, we developed one item to address encouragement. To address the issue of the valence of our items, we knew to avoid reverse scored items -especially for younger respondents (see Benson & Hocevar, 1985;Swain, Weathers, & Niedrich, 2008). …”

“…In practice, theoretically ostensible opposites are frequently not arrayed on a continuum (i.e., they are multi-dimensional) and reverse-scored items diminish scale reliability. (Benson & Hocevar, 1985;Cacioppo & Berntson, 1994;Swain, et al, 2008) Use at least 5-7 response anchors For most respondent populations five-point response anchors for unipolar items (that range from a conceptual 0 point to infinity) and seven-point response anchors for bipolar items (that conceptually range from negative infinity to infinity) will work well. (Krosnick, 1999;Weng, 2004) Avoid agree/disagree response anchors Asking respondents to rate their level of agreement to different statements is a cognitively demanding task that increases respondent error and reduces respondent effort in many cases.…”

Job Satisfaction Among Malaysian Employees: An Application of Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey in the South East Asian Context

“…Malaysian employees are less likely to indicate their agreement by disagreeing with negatively worded items than by agreeing to positive items (Benson & Hocevar 1985). Takalkar and Coover (1994) report that ethnic Indian employees do not perceive a few items from "operating procedures subscale" negatively.…”