Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Measures
Using optifact- to Create Better
Summated Rating Scales
North American Stata Users' Group Meetings
Boston, July 11-12, 2005
Why Scales?
Combining the results of several questions
It is valid
It measures the concept that it is intended to measure
Reliability
Internal Reliability
Internal consistency: the items should intercorrelate (Cronbachs Alpha)
Test-Retest Reliability
Same measure taken again should produce
consistent results
Validity
Rationale
The items must be consistent with theory and the
concept under consideration
Criterion Validity
The items should vary in the same way to other
variables that are theoretically related to the
concept
Canonical correlation
Uni-dimensional, Efficient
Scales that measure a single concept are
Research Question
If my scales are not uni-dimensional, are
Canonical correlation
Criterion validity
Problems
There are a lot of candidate scales
2k 1, if scales of all sizes are considered
Solution: optifact
A Stata software component to analyze a
-optifact- Specification
optifact varlist [weight] [if exp] [in range]
[, top(#) smallest(#) largest(#) maxfact(#) minslope(#)]
-optifact- Output
optifact abecq6b abecq6n abecq6w abecq6p abecq6i abecq6qq abecq6hh abecq6s
[aweight=awtcw01c], top(20) criteria(childsex ammcq01)
8 items will be processed
There are 219 potential scales
56 combinations of
Top 5 scales using
Avg.
K Alpha Cov.
- ----- ----1 3 0.774 0.201
2 3 0.769 0.203
3 3 0.744 0.231
4 3 0.742 0.169
5 3 0.734 0.213
3 items had
3 items
Can
Chk Items
--- ----Yes abecq6p
Yes abecq6p
Yes abecq6b
Yes abecq6p
Yes abecq6n
55 combinations of
Top 5 scales using
Avg.
K Alpha Cov.
- ----- ----1 4 0.802 0.185
2 4 0.784 0.199
3 4 0.776 0.191
4 4 0.775 0.198
5 4 0.768 0.172
4 items had
4 items
Can
Chk Items
--- ----Yes abecq6p
Yes abecq6n
Yes abecq6n
Yes abecq6b
Yes abecq6p
abecq6i abecq6qq
abecq6i abecq6hh
abecq6n abecq6hh
abecq6qq abecq6hh
abecq6p abecq6i
abecq6i
abecq6p
abecq6p
abecq6p
abecq6i
abecq6qq abecq6hh
abecq6i abecq6hh
abecq6i abecq6qq
abecq6i abecq6hh
abecq6qq abecq6s
Behaviour Scales
Variable
Concepts
Alpha
Hyperactivity
(becs06)
0.84
Prosocial Behaviour
(becs07)
10
0.76
Emotional Disorder /
Anxiety (becs07)
0.78
Aggression
(becs09
0.78
Indirect Aggression
(becs10)
0.78
Property Offences
(becs11)
0.62
Parenting Scales
Variable
Concepts
Alpha
0.73
0.37
0.81
0.70
0.68
0.62
PMK Depression
(dpps01)
12
0.82
Results
Of these 13 scales only one was uni-
dimensional
Most had larger number of items than
desirable for the value of alpha
Concepts
Alpha
Concepts
Alpha
Hyperactivity
(becs06)
0.84
0.80
Prosocial Behaviour
(becs07)
10
0.76
0.77
Emotional Disorder /
Anxiety (becs07)
0.78
0.62
Aggression
(becs09)
0.78
0.67
Indirect Aggression
(becs10)
0.78
0.70
Property Offences
(becs11)
0.62
0.63
Concepts
Alpha
Concepts
Alpha
0.73
0.63
0.37
0.81
0.78
0.70
0.68
0.66
0.62
12
0.82
0.75
Implications
These scales are part of a large survey
Implications (Contd)
The scales required 85 questions
The revised scales require 30 questions
More than 55,000,000 questions
Caveats
Most scales in the NLSCY are not the best
Conclusions
-optifact- can help find better measures
Uni-dimensional
Valid
Reliable