Developing Screeners Versus Short Forms: A Comparative Illustration

• In Event: 30.081 - Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: 30.081-7 - Survey Research in Education SIG Poster Session 1

Abstract

Survey researchers are interested to develop short scales to increase response rates. Short forms are abbreviated measures, normally developed from a comprehensive scale by selecting the limited number of items. Screeners are a kind of short form that used to classify people into categories for follow-up testing or treatment. Short forms can be used to understand the whole domain of the construct in a more efficient way as well. This study will use Rasch methodology to develop two survey scales from a comprehensive instrument that investigates children’s externalizing problems using the norm dataset. The initial results showed that more than half of the items (11) were same in two scales. The internal consistency was 0.927 (screener) and 0.903 (short form).

Authors

• Jin Liu, University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Christine DiStefano, University of South Carolina

• Fred Greer, University of South Carolina