Assessment of the measurement equivalence of a Spanish translation of the 16PF questionnaire

The differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) framework was used to examine the measurement equivalence of a Spanish translation of the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered in English to English-speaking Anglo-Americans and English-dominant Hispanic Americans and in Spanish to Spanish-dominant Hispanic Americans and Spanish-speaking Mexican nationals. As expected, the compensatory differential item functioning/differential test functioning (CDIF/DTF) procedure, which accounts for CDIF at the scale level, flagged fewer items as differential functioning than did the noncompensatory differential item functioning (NCDIF) procedure. Results did not support the hypothesis that DIF would be greatest in the Angle versus Spanish-speaker comparison followed by the Hispanic versus Spanish-speaker comparison and least in the Angle versus Hispanic comparison. Advantages of using the DFIT framework in assessing test translations, especially for test developers, are discussed.