Determining the Internal Validity of the Inventory of Reading Occupations: An Assessment Tool of Children's Reading Participation

Lenin C Grajo; Catherine Candler; Patricia Bowyer; Sally Schultz; Jennifer Thomson; Karen Fong

doi:10.5014/ajot.2016.017582

Determining the Internal Validity of the Inventory of Reading Occupations: An Assessment Tool of Children's Reading Participation

Am J Occup Ther. 2016 May-Jun;70(3):7003220010p1-9. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2016.017582.

Authors

Lenin C Grajo¹, Catherine Candler², Patricia Bowyer³, Sally Schultz⁴, Jennifer Thomson⁵, Karen Fong⁶

Affiliations

¹ Lenin C. Grajo, PhD, EdM, OTR/L, is Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO; lgrajo@slu.edu.
² Catherine Candler, PhD, BCP, OTR, is Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX.
³ Patricia Bowyer, EdD, MS, OTR, FAOTA, is Professor and Associate Director, School of Occupational Therapy, Texas Woman's University, Houston.
⁴ Sally Schultz, PhD, OT, LPC-S, is Professor Emerita, School of Occupational Therapy, Texas Woman's University, Dallas.
⁵ Jennifer Thomson, PhD, is Senior Lecturer, Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England.
⁶ Karen Fong is Doctoral Student, Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics and Assessment Program, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago.

PMID: 27089292
DOI: 10.5014/ajot.2016.017582

Abstract

The Inventory of Reading Occupations (IRO) is an assessment tool of children's reading participation. In this study, we used Rasch methods to determine the internal validity of the IRO. Participants included 192 typical and struggling readers from kindergarten to third grade from five different states in the United States. We analyzed the fit of each of the items in the 17 reading categories, the test items in the three dimensions of reading participation, and the contexts of reading in the IRO. Analysis indicated that the IRO items support the Rasch model of unidimensionality. Analysis also indicated that 1 of the 30 test items can be revised to strengthen test validity. Moreover, the analysis also suggested that the IRO is more useful for first- to third-grade students. This study provides evidence of internal validity of a useful tool to assess children's reading participation.