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Title: Validation of the Delinquency Index: Youth Report Against the Rasch Measurement Model
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Wikoff, Nora |
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Validation of the Delinquency Index: Youth Report Against the Rasch Measurement Model Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: American Society of Criminology Keyword(s): Delinquency/Gang Activity; Ethnic Differences; Racial Differences; Scale Construction; Self-Reporting Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Researchers have justified their embrace of self-report delinquency scales on theoretical and methodical grounds. Not only do summative scales appear to measure behaviors across the delinquency spectrum, their continuous distributions free researchers to use a wider array of statistical techniques. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the validity of self-report delinquency scales to confirm that scales accurately measure delinquent behavior across subgroups, such as age and racial and ethnic status. Using data from the first wave of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I use the Rasch measurement model to examine measurement properties of the Delinquency Index-Youth Report. This model tests whether the index provides consistent measurement across subgroups that include age, gender, and racial and ethnic status. Few researchers have applied the Rasch model to self-report delinquency scales, and none have applied the Rasch model to self-report delinquency measures used in the NLSY97 crime module. The results show that differential item functioning exists across age groups and racial and ethnic groups. Questions were harder for Whites to endorse than for African Americans and Hispanics, leading to misleading racial differences in delinquency. This paper discusses the implications of using these items to measure delinquent behavior among American youth. |
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Bibliography Citation
Wikoff, Nora. "Validation of the Delinquency Index: Youth Report Against the Rasch Measurement Model." Presented: Chicago IL, American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting, 2012. |