Allameh Tabataba’i University Quarterly of Educational Measurement 2252-004X 14 54 2023 12 22 Differential Item Functioning of Academic Alienation Scale’s Items in Psychology and Educational Sciences Students Based on Demographic Characteristics Differential Item Functioning of Academic Alienation Scale’s Items in Psychology and Educational Sciences Students Based on Demographic Characteristics 6 27 17380 10.22054/jem.2024.59468.2161 FA Zahra Jahanbakhsh Assistant Professor, Department of Assessment and Measurement, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-1477-0420 Noorali Farrokhi Professor, Department of Assessment and Measurement, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran Jalil Younesi ATUAssociate Professor, Department of Assessment and Measurement, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2021 03 02 In order to increase the precision of measurement, survey studies apply scales for the evaluation of latent features. This study aimed to examine differential item functioning (DIF) of Academic Alienation scale items in students based on the Item Response theory (IRT) framework. DIF analysis is used to test the hypothesis if the item parameters for the different groups of identical ability are invariant. DIF analyses of gender and education duration were performed using a sample of 1100 Psychology and educational sciences students in the city of Tehran. The Academic Alienation items (Burbach, 1972) studied were 4-point Likert-type scales. The questionnaire had three subscales: isolation, meaningless, and powerlessness. Analyses were conducted using the graded item response model with likelihood ratio (IRT-LR) tests of DIF. DIF analyses were conducted with 4 anchor items and after Bonferroni adjustment only 3 items based on gender and 2 items according to education duration were detected with meaningful DIF. The explanation of DIF detection can be discussed based on the cultural context of universities. Sexual inequality, teachers’ attitudes, university management policies, and finally educational injustice may be the reasons for the sense of academic alienation in students. In order to increase the precision of measurement, survey studies apply scales for the evaluation of latent features. This study aimed to examine differential item functioning (DIF) of Academic Alienation scale items in students based on the Item Response theory (IRT) framework. DIF analysis is used to test the hypothesis if the item parameters for the different groups of identical ability are invariant. DIF analyses of gender and education duration were performed using a sample of 1100 Psychology and educational sciences students in the city of Tehran. The Academic Alienation items (Burbach, 1972) studied were 4-point Likert-type scales. The questionnaire had three subscales: isolation, meaningless, and powerlessness. Analyses were conducted using the graded item response model with likelihood ratio (IRT-LR) tests of DIF. DIF analyses were conducted with 4 anchor items and after Bonferroni adjustment only 3 items based on gender and 2 items according to education duration were detected with meaningful DIF. The explanation of DIF detection can be discussed based on the cultural context of universities. Sexual inequality, teachers’ attitudes, university management policies, and finally educational injustice may be the reasons for the sense of academic alienation in students. https://jem.atu.ac.ir/article_17380_b3ba5e210af018d2739580060da5dd19.pdf