Negative Item Bias in Ratings Scales for Preadolescent Children: A Cognitive-Developmental Phenomenon

The negative item bias is produced by the inability of preadolescent children to respond appropriately to negative items on rating scales and is hypothesized to be a cognitive-developmental phenomenon. The effect is examined with responses to the Self Description Questionnaire (SDQ), a multifactor self-concept instrument whose factor structure, reliability, and validity have been demonstrated previously. In Study 1, responses to positive and negative items were compared for children ( N = 658) in Grades 2-5. Particularly in Grade 2, children frequently responded "true" to negative items, indicating a very poor self-concept, even when their other responses indicated a very positive self-concept. Responses to positive and negative items were uncorrelated (−.02) in Grade 2 but were substantially correlated by Grade 5 (.59), which demonstrates a dramatic developmental effect. In Study 2 confirmatory factor analyses of responses by fifth-grade students ( N = 559) demonstrated that the negative items contributed both to the scale they were designed to measure and to a "negative item" factor. The Negative Item factor was nearly uncorrelated with any of the self-concept factors but was substantially correlated with reading achievement (.42). Taken together, the two studies demonstrate that younger children and children with poorer reading skills are less able to respond appropriately to negative items and that this effect biases the interpretation of their responses.