Male and female performance on the assessment of motor and process skills

Objective: To examine the validity of the assertion that men and women do not differ significantly on the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), a functional assessment tool used to evaluate the interaction between component motor and process skills and IADL (instrumental or domestic activities of daily living) performance capacity. Design: Descriptive comparison. Using many-faceted Rasch analysis, the AMPS motor and process scales were examined for differential item response between gender subgroups. Mean motor and process ability measures of age-matched groups of male and female subjects were also compared. Participants: A convenience sample of more than 3,500 men and women from the standardization sample for the pilot version of the AMPS computer-scoring software. The subjects had a variety of physical disabilities or psychiatric diagnoses. Main Outcome Measures: Hypotheses were as follows: (1) no differential item response would be found on the motor or process scales; (2) if differential item response was found, it would not have an impact on the final estimation of client ability; (3) men and women would not differ in mean AMPS motor or process ability. Results: Of the 36 AMPS items, only one (Lifts) differed between men and women. This differential item response did not disrupt the final estimation of client ability. Men and women did not differ in mean motor ability. Women on the whole were more able than men in mean process ability. Conclusions: The AMPS is valid for use across Sender subgroups. Men and women do not differ in AMPS motor ability, but overall, women are slightly more able than men in AMPS process ability. (C) 1996 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation