Minimizing gender differences in children's interest assessment: Development of the Inventory of Children's Activities-3 (ICA-3)

Terence Tracey, David Caulum

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

The focus of this study was on revising the Inventory of Children's Activities-Revised (ICA-R; Tracey & Ward, 1998) to enhance its psychometric properties while minimizing gender differences in scale scores. The original 30 ICA-R items and an additional 30 items were administered to 70,280 fifth-eighth grades students. The original scoring was compared to a revised scoring method based solely on the empirically best items and a scoring method balancing empirical scoring with minimizing gender differences. All three item sets (original, empirical, and combined empirical/gender balancing) resulted in strong internal consistency estimates and adequate fit to the circular structure, yet the combined empirical/gender method had much lower gender differences especially for the scales measuring Investigative and Social interests. The implications of using the revised scale with children is discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)154-160
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Vocational Behavior
Volume87
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2015

Keywords

  • Children's interests
  • Interest development
  • Interest measurement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Applied Psychology
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

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