Advancing the understanding of the resident pro-tourism behavior scale: An integration of item response theory and classical test theory

ABSTR A C T Sound measurement is critical for advancing an understanding of resident pro-tourism behavior, a growing but still new research area. However, existing scale development and validation practices of pro-tourism behavior tend to focus on classical test theory (CTT), a dominant measurement approach in social science. The addition of item-specific information provided by item response theory (IRT) to the overall scale performance, the focus of CTT psychometric testing, allows us to gain a more thorough understanding of the pro-tourism behavior scale. The results suggest that the pro-tourism behavior scale (Ribeiro, Pinto, Silva, & Woosman, 2017) has good psychometric properties. Most items have high discrimination parameters, demonstrating their ability to discriminate between participants across a range of pro-tourism behavior. More importantly, it is evident that the instrument demonstrates better measurement precision across the lower and middle levels of pro-tourism behavior.

Automated summary

The study shows that the pro-tourism behavior scale has good psychometric properties, with most items effectively discriminating participants' behavior levels and demonstrating better measurement precision across the lower and middle levels of pro-tourism behavior.