Background/Purpose Partnership is an important characteristic in Ballroom dance competitions. A Partnership Scale was developed as a self-evaluation tool of Ballroom dance sport participants' togetherness (Kim, 2011). The purpose of this study was to calibrate a Partnership Scale for dance sport participants using the Rasch rating scale model, an advanced measurement model.
Method The 18-item scale was administered to 301 participants who actively involved in dance sport in Seoul, Korea. The parameters of item difficulty and participant's partnership level and differential item functioning (DIF) between male and female were examined. Model-data fit was determined by Infit and Outfit statistics (>.7 and <=.3).
Analysis/Results Overall, the model fit the data well, except for one item (“Our couples receive judges' smile during the competition”). The most negative-response items were “Our couples receive judges' attention during the competition” (logits = .58) and “Our couples become the center of judges' interest” (.47). The most positive-response items were “Our couples respect each other” (-1.19) and “Our couples behave courteously each other” (-1.01). The overall mean of partnership level was .00 (SD = .57) in logits, which showed reasonable spread along the scale. Three items ("Our couples receive the cheers from spectators", “Our couples receive judges' attention during the competition", and “Our couples respect each other”) were identified as having significant DIF between male and female partners.
Conclusions While the model fit the data well, additional efforts should be made to improve the measurement equivalence of a Partnership Scale between male and female partners.
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