Project management: Prof. Dr. Burkhard Gniewosz &  Prof. Dr. David Gijbels

Period: 2022 – ongoing

Brief description:

On the one hand, questionnaires are criticized with regard to quality criteria; on the other hand, they are an indispensable means of data collection in social science research. Some of the justified criticism is due to a “one-size fits all” mentality in questionnaire construction, which is currently state of the art. In this first project phase, it will be tested whether questionnaires show different patterns with regard to quality criteria depending on the person completing them. The aim of the project is to show that the reliability and validity of self-report scales vary between homogeneous subgroups in the data set. These latent classes are to be predicted by background variables such as SES, gender, migration background, cultural participation, etc. This study should form a starting point for the expansion of the research focus on person-centered psychometric analysis of questionnaire scales.