Multiple-Component Measurement Instruments in Heterogeneous Populations: Is There a Single Coefficient Alpha?
This note confronts the common use of a single coefficient alpha as an index informing about reliability of a multicomponent measurement instrument in a heterogeneous population. Two or more alpha coefficients could instead be meaningfully associated with a given instrument in finite mixture setting...
| Publicado en: | Educational & Psychological Measurement Vol. 79; no. 2; pp. 399 - 413 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Sage Publications Inc.
Apr2019
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=135387976&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 135387976 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00131644 EPM jtl: Educational & Psychological Measurement issn: 00131644 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2019 vid: 79 iid: 2 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 135387976 10.1177/0013164417733305 ppf: 399 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Multiple-Component Measurement Instruments in Heterogeneous Populations: Is There a Single Coefficient Alpha? aug: au: Raykov, Tenko Marcoulides, George A. Harrison, Michael Menold, Natalja affil: Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim, Germany su: Psychometrics Reliability (Personality trait) Empirical research Demographic characteristics Statistical correlation Finite element method High performance computing Latent structure analysis Mathematics Research methodology Research methodology evaluation Evaluation sug: subj: Psychometrics Reliability (Personality trait) Empirical research Demographic characteristics Statistical correlation Finite element method High performance computing Latent structure analysis Mathematics Research methodology Research methodology evaluation Evaluation keyword: coefficient alpha latent class measuring instrument mixture reliability unobserved heterogeneity coefficient alpha latent class measuring instrument mixture reliability unobserved heterogeneity ab: This note confronts the common use of a single coefficient alpha as an index informing about reliability of a multicomponent measurement instrument in a heterogeneous population. Two or more alpha coefficients could instead be meaningfully associated with a given instrument in finite mixture settings, and this may be increasingly more likely the case in empirical educational and psychological research. It is argued that in such situations explicit examination of class-invariance in the alpha coefficient must precede any statements about its possible value in the studied population. The approach permits also the evaluation of between-class alpha differences as well as point and interval estimation of the within-class alpha coefficients. The method can similarly be used in situations with (a) known class membership when distinct (sub)populations are investigated while their number is known beforehand and membership in them is observed for studied persons, as well as (b) in settings where only the number of latent classes is known for a population under investigation. The outlined procedure is illustrated with numerical data. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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