Examining the Japanese Version of the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behavior Among Adults and Adolescents Using Item Response Theory

Measures of creative behavior have typically been developed for adults (Biographical Inventory of Creative Behavior [BICB]). Such measures are important for examining the mechanisms of creativity and for understanding how creativity education relates to creative behavior. In Japan, where creativity education has become increasingly emphasized in schools, a scale needs to be developed that can assess creative behavior not only among adults but also among adolescents. Thus, this study developed a Japanese version of the BICB (BICB‐J) and examined its measurement properties using the Item Response Theory (IRT) (Study 1). The results demonstrated that multiple BICB items had a high difficulty level and that the BICB‐J was extremely difficult for Japanese adults. Differential item and test functioning analyses revealed that the difficulty of the BICB‐J items varied by gender and age even when the respondents' traits were the same. Furthermore, this study developed the BICB‐J for adolescents by adding items and examining its measurement properties using IRT (Study 2). The results showed that the BICB‐J items for adolescents had less difficulty measuring the creative behavior of Japanese adolescents than that of adults. The results are discussed considering previous findings on creative activity among Japanese people.