Assessing Activities of Daily Living in Children Aged 5–10 Years: Rasch Validation of the DCDDaily-Q-CN in Community Contexts

Background Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) affects 5–6% of school-aged children, impairing motor coordination, daily functioning, and academic performance. Existing assessment tools often focus on either motor skills or functional interference, limiting comprehensive evaluation. This study applied Rasch analysis to the Chinese version of the DCDDaily-Questionnaire (DCDDaily-Q-CN), a parent-report measure of children’s daily functioning and participation, to evaluate its measurement properties and cross-gender invariance, thereby supporting its validity as a screening tool for children with suspected DCD. Methods Rasch analysis was conducted on data from 1,908 typically developing children (1,020 boys and 888 girls; mean age = 7.7 ± 1.7 years) recruited from 14 mainstream schools in a migrant city. The analysis evaluated key psychometric properties, including item and person reliability and separation, item-person targeting, item fit, category functioning, dimensionality, and Differential Item Functioning (DIF). Results Rasch analysis demonstrated excellent item reliability (≥ 0.98) and strong structural validity across all domains. However, person reliability was moderate (0.49–0.75), indicating limited precision in distinguishing individuals within subdomains. The scale showed good item fit (infit and outfit MNSQ values between 0.50 and 1.70), appropriate functioning of response categories, and supported unidimensionality across all domains. Item difficulties were generally well aligned with the ability levels of most children aged 5 to 10 years, confirming that the scale is appropriately targeted for its intended screening purpose. Nevertheless, Wright maps revealed mild ceiling effects and a degree of mismatch between item difficulty and participant ability, particularly in self-care tasks. DIF analysis identified gender-related bias in several self-care and fine motor items, whereas gross motor items exhibited measurement invariance across gender. Conclusion Rasch analysis confirms that the DCDDaily-Q-CN is a psychometrically robust tool with high reliability, unidimensional structure, and generally appropriate item targeting for assessing ADL in children aged 5 to 10 years. However, moderate person reliability and limited separation at the domain level suggest that subscale scores may be more suitable for group-level screening than for precise individual assessment. Furthermore, the identification of gender-related item bias highlights the need for refinement to improve fairness across genders.