Differential Item Functioning analyses on the ELOM 4&5 across all 11 South African languages

Questions of bias and equivalence are fundamental issues that must be addressed in the development of tests, such as the ELOM 4&5 that are intended for use in several cultural or linguistic populations. Such tests must be assessed for their linguistic, cultural, functional and metric equivalence.

Linguistic equivalence is established when the words and linguistic meaning used in the instruments and instructions are the same across the languages of administration. Related, functional equivalence is established when the test instructions elicit the same behaviour in children from different backgrounds.

This analyses was conducted by Matthew Snelling, Senior Evaluation and Learning Consultant, and Prof. Andrew Dawes, Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town.

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