Browsing by Author "Jansen van Vuuren, Nicola"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A psychometric investigation of the South African career interest inventory-isiXhosa version among secondary school learners using the Rasch measurement model
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Jansen van Vuuren, Nicola; Rabie, Stephan; Naidoo, Anthony V.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Psychology
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The assessment of interests is an indispensable component of career counselling. John Holland’s theory of vocational personalities provides an extensively used theoretical framework in career interest assessment. However, South African research has indicated a lack of validity of imported interest inventories based on Holland’s model in the South African context. These findings provided the catalyst for the development of the South African Career Interest Inventory (SACII) – an interest inventory underpinned by Holland’s circular order model that takes the unique South African context into consideration. The SACII was developed in English and Afrikaans, even though the majority of the South African population does not speak either English or Afrikaans as a home language. Due to this limitation, and the importance of language as a moderator of assessment performance, Rabie and Naidoo (2019) constructed the SACII-isiXhosa (SACII-X) - the first career interest inventory in an indigenous South African language. Promising initial results for the reliability and validity of the SACII-X have been found among a South African sample. Nevertheless, the SACII-X is in need of further study and refinement. Since the SACII-X has previously only been subjected to Classical Test Theory methodology, Item Response Theory methodology makes a valuable contribution to the study of the SACII-X. The present study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties, and the item functioning of the SACII-X, using the Rasch measurement model. To achieve these aims, secondary data, collected by Rabie (2017) from 266 isiXhosa home language-speaking secondary school learners during the development of the SACII-X, were analysed. The data demonstrated good fit to the Rasch measurement model, thus providing support for the reliability and validity of the SACII-X in the South African context. The analysis of item functioning further highlighted a small proportion of poor functioning items across the six SACII-X scales. Recommendations regarding the adaptation or removal of the identified items are made.