تغییر ناپذیری عاملی بین جنس ها در مقیاس هوش وکسلر برای کودکان- نسخه پنجم Factor invariance between genders on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fifth Edition

۱٫ Introduction Wechsler tests are among the most widely used intelligence instruments worldwide (Archer, Buffington-Vollum, Stredny, & Handel, 2006; Bowden, 2013; Rabin, Barr, & Burton, 2005). Roughly twenty countries have adapted and standardized Wechsler intelligence scales to date (Camara, Nathan, & Puente, 2000; Georgas, Weiss, van de Vijver, & Saklofske, 2003). The Wechsler intelligence scales are revered because of their psychometric properties and practical relevance (GrothMarnat, 2009, p. 119). Invariance is a fundamental property of any instrument that may be used to compare individuals from subpopulations. Meaningful comparisons can be made only if the measures are comparable and a lack of evidence for measurement invariance hinders the ability of the measure to be used in comparisons among groups (AERA, APA, NCME, 2014; Chen, Sousa, & West, 2005; Drasgow, 1984, 1987; Horn & McArdle, 1992; Millsap & Kwok, 2004; Rock, Werts, & Flaugher, 1978; Vandenberg & Lance, 2000). The Wechsler intelligence scales are frequently utilized in the course of psychoeducational assessments (Flanagan & Kaufman, 2004; Prifitera, Saklofske, & Weiss, 2005, 2008; Sattler & Dumont, 2004; Weiss, Saklofske, Prifitera, & Holdnack, 2008). Implicit in such common practice is the assumption that Wechsler intelligence scale scores have the same meaning for children in various subpopulations. Thus, investigating the measurement invariance of Wechsler intelligence scales is crucial. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014a) is the latest edition of Wechsler’s test of child intelligence, which has its roots in the Wechsler Bellevue Form II published in 1946 by Wechsler. The WISC-V is a major revision of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV; Wechsler, 2003), and it does incorporate many significant changes. Chief among these is that compared to the four-factor model utilized in the WISC-IV, the WISC-V utilizes a new five-factor scoring framework, with the factors as follows: Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Visual Spatial (VSI), Fluid Reasoning (FRI), Working Memory (WMI), and Processing Speed (PSI) (Wechsler, 2014a). For the past decade, studies worldwide have shown firm support for WISC-IV measurement invariance between genders (Chen & Zhu, 2008), and across various cultures (Chen, Keith, Weiss, Zhu, & Li, 2010), ages (Keith, Fine, Taub, Reynolds, & Kranzler, 2006), and clinical status (Chen, Hung, Chen, Zhu, & Keith, in press; Chen & Zhu, 2012; Weiss, Keith, Zhu, & Chen, 2013). In addition, studies of the WISC-IV found support for a five-factor structure among the normative (Keith et al., 2006; Weiss et al., 2013) and clinical samples (Weiss et al., 2013), and the WISC-V Technical and Interpretive Manual (Wechsler, 2014b) provided evidence supporting this new structure in the new version, but questions about consistency of measurement across subpopulations remain to be answered for the WISC-V (Canivez & Watkins, in press). Among all possible subgroup classifications, gender invariance is recognized as fundamental for measurements in various domains (Atienza, Balaguer, & Garcia-Merita, 2003; Byrne, Baron, & Campbell, 1993; Cheng & Watkins, 2000; Richardson, Huan, Ege, Suh, & Rice, 2014; Rusticus & Hubley, 2006). For data from males and females are usually combined when substantive applied studies of the Wechsler intelligence scales are conducted empirically, gender invariance certainly is an essential issue pertaining to WISC-V. Besides, we need evidence showing that the WISC-V is not a biased tool against gender and thus any future gender difference based on this instrument could be genuine. This study investigates gender invariance with large samples with considerable variation. Specially, we evaluated whether the WISC-V subtests measure latent abilities in the same manner for both male and female children. ۲٫ Method ۲٫۱٫ Participants We analyzed the WISC-V standardization responses from 2200 children (males N = 1009; females N = 1101). This nationally representative sample was divided into 11 age groups from ages 6 to 16, with 200 children in each age group. This sample was carefully selected to match the 2012 United States Census on geographic region, gender, parent education level, and race/ethnicity. A detailed description of this sample is provided in the WISC-V manual (Wechsler, 2014b). ۲٫۲٫ Instrumentation The WISC-V has 10 primary subtests and six secondary subtests. The 10 primary subtests are Similarities (SI), Vocabulary (VC), Block Design (BD), Visual Puzzles (VP), Matrix Reasoning (MR), Figure Weights (FW), Digit Span (DS), Picture Span (PS), Coding (CD), and Symbol Search (SS). The six secondary subtests are Information (IN), Comprehension (CO), Picture Concepts (PC), Arithmetic (AR), Letter–Number Sequencing (LN), and Cancellation (CA). All composites and subtests have demonstrated good reliability, with average internal consistency reliability estimates ranging from 0.88 to 0.96 for composites, 0.81 to 0.94 for primary subtests, and .82 to .90 for secondary subtests (Wechsler, 2014b, pp.57). We employed all 10 primary subtests and six secondary subtests in this study to ensure adequate markers for reliable latent abilities.