Applying Item Response Theory to the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire: Examining Psychometric Characteristics and Developing Computerized Adaptive Testing Version

Abstract

Incoming students have many difficulties adjusting to college, and selecting appropriate measures to effectively screen them is indispensable, especially in China, where there is insufficient research in this area. To enrich domestic research, this study seeks to examine psychometric characteristics and develop a computerized adaptive version of the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ-CAT) based on a sample of Chinese students. Under the framework of item response theory, the item bank of student adaptation to college was formulated after uni-dimensionality testing, model comparison, item fit testing, and local independence testing. Subsequently, a CAT simulation, including three termination rules, was performed using real data to evaluate and verify the SACQ-CAT. The results showed reliability values exceeding 0.90 when participants’ latent traits were between −4 and 3, covering majority of the subjects. The SACQ-CAT administered an average of fewer than 10 items to participants compared to 67 items on the original scale. The correlation coefficient between latency estimated by the SACQ-CAT and the SACQ is greater than .85, whereas the correlation coefficient with the Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90) scores ranges from −.33 to −.55 (p < .001). The SACQ-CAT largely reduced the number of items administered to the participants and avoided losing measurement precision.

Compliance with ethical standards

All procedures performed in this study, involving human participants, were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants included in the study. This study was approved by the Mental Health Education and Counseling Center of Guizhou Normal University.

Data availability statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following project: Guizhou Province Science and Technology Planning Project (Qiankehe Foundation-ZK [2021] General 123).