Abstract
The present study investigated the differential item functioning of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 items by sex in a sample of athletes searching for bias. 172 athletes, 61.6% males, aged 14-58 years old were investigated. The sports were basketball (14.5%), soccer (28.5%), Handball (22.7%), Jiu-jitsu (13.4%) and volleyball (20.9%), and the research was performed in various clubs and teams in São Paulo. We analyzed the items and persons fit to the Rasch model and a few misfits were identified. That is, in some items, high concordance of low anxiety people occurred and vice versa. The differential item functioning by sex suggested approximately 40% of biased items to one of the groups and especially men were favored. New studies must be alert to this fact, avoiding problems regarding the validity of the instrument.
The present study investigated the differential item functioning of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 items by sex in a sample of athletes searching for bias. 172 athletes, 61.6% males, aged 14-58 years old were investigated. The sports were basketball (14.5%), soccer (28.5%), Handball (22.7%), Jiu-jitsu (13.4%) and volleyball (20.9%), and the research was performed in various clubs and teams in São Paulo. We analyzed the items and persons fit to the Rasch model and a few misfits were identified. That is, in some items, high concordance of low anxiety people occurred and vice versa. The differential item functioning by sex suggested approximately 40% of biased items to one of the groups and especially men were favored. New studies must be alert to this fact, avoiding problems regarding the validity of the instrument.
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