Abstract:
Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is used to detect bias within assessments. In this
project, uniform DIF and nonuniform DIF were modeled and observed to assess the fairness of
the cognitive items on the Financial Literacy Questionnaire (FL). The FL is provided to countries
to assess a variety of 15-year-old’s aptitudes by the Programme for International Student
Assessment; including financial literacy. This project uses, logistic regression (LR), a
hierarchical logistic regression with a random-intercept and a random-coefficient (HLR-RI/RC)
to assess uniform and nonuniform DIF to provide further support of HLR in DIF assessment.
Results indicate that both types of DIF were present in the first collection of models; which
gender bias was examined for male and female participants. The second collection of models
detected and nonuniform DIF, indicating item bias toward participants that were native and
nonnative to their countries.
