MEASURING THE UNMEASURABLE: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS IN THE CFAM-PS WITHIN A BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Environmental factors are crucial to understanding how biopsychosocial models explain functioning. However, defining and measuring these factors within school-based assessments remains challenging. This article critically reviews the Environmental Factors section of the Child Functional Abilities Measure for Primary Schools (CFAM-PS). CFAM-PS is a locally developed instrument used to assess the functional abilities of primary school pupils with special educational needs in Malaysia. The review highlights the conceptual, methodological, and psychometric issues involved in translating environmental influences in the school environment into measurable assessment constructs. The review draws on data from a larger validation study of the CFAM-PS, involving 85 special education teachers and 167 pupils with special educational needs from seven public primary schools in Malaysia. The Environmental Factors section consisted of 26 items, which covered school and home contexts, and was analysed using the Rasch Measurement Model. The findings indicate that the section was able to capture a range of contextual issues that may influence pupils’ functioning. These included relationships, attitudes, physical surroundings, access to resources and services, and conditions within the home and school environments. However, the Rasch results also raised several measurement concerns. In particular, the section showed weak evidence of unidimensionality, lower person reliability and separation, ceiling effects, rating scale disorder, and several misfitting items. Taken together, these findings suggest that environmental factors in the CFAM-PS may not function as a single construct. Rather, they appear to represent a set of related but distinct contextual influences that vary according to the pupil, setting, and type of support or barrier involved. While the Environmental Factors section of the CFAM-PS remains useful for identifying supports and barriers in pupils’ daily functioning, its total score should be interpreted carefully. Future refinement should include clearer item definitions, improved rating categories, possible subdomain groupings, and further validation across diverse educational settings.