Ray James V
University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA.
Assessment. 2023 Jun;30(4):1009-1027. doi: 10.1177/10731911221077230. Epub 2022 Mar 4.
Research is yet to examine whether the items of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI) function equally well across race/ethnicity and gender. The current study applies an item response theory analysis to detect differential item functioning (DIF) of the YPI subscale across White, Black, and Hispanic youth and males and females among a sample of justice-involved youth. Significant DIF was detected for several items between Black youth and White youth and Black youth and Hispanic youth. Few incidences of DIF emerged between White and Hispanic youth and between males and females. The findings suggest that subscales of the YPI provide more information for White and Hispanic youth compared with Black youth. They also suggest that while there was significant DIF in the difficulty of items, the direction of DIF did not substantially favor one group or another. Thus, the findings suggest that the YPI produces comparable estimates of psychopathic traits for females and males and for White and Hispanic youth. However, the results raise concerns about comparing YPI subscale scores between White and Black youth and Hispanic and Black youth. The findings have important implications for the use of the YPI subscales among diverse samples.
目前尚无研究考察青少年精神病态特质量表（YPI）的各个项目在不同种族/族裔和性别群体中是否具有同样良好的效果。本研究运用项目反应理论分析，以检测YPI分量表在涉及司法事务的青少年样本中，针对白人、黑人、西班牙裔青少年以及男性和女性的项目功能差异（DIF）。在黑人青少年与白人青少年以及黑人青少年与西班牙裔青少年之间，有几个项目检测到了显著的DIF。在白人与西班牙裔青少年之间以及男性与女性之间，出现的DIF情况较少。研究结果表明，与黑人青少年相比，YPI的分量表为白人和西班牙裔青少年提供了更多信息。研究结果还表明，虽然项目难度存在显著的DIF，但DIF的方向并没有明显偏向某一组。因此，研究结果表明，YPI对女性和男性、白人和西班牙裔青少年的精神病态特质产生了可比的估计。然而，研究结果引发了对比较白人与黑人青少年以及西班牙裔与黑人青少年之间YPI分量表分数的担忧。这些发现对于在不同样本中使用YPI分量表具有重要意义。
