Reliability for Tests With Items Having Different Numbers of Ordered Categories. Issue 2 (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Seohyun; Lu, Zhenqiu; Cohen, Allan S.
• Is Part Of: Applied psychological measurement. Volume 44:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 137
• Page End: 149
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: reliability -- structural equation modeling -- categorical data; Psychometrics -- Periodicals; Psychological tests -- Periodicals; Psychology, Applied -- Periodicals; 150.1519505
• DOI: 10.1177/0146621619835498
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0146-6216

Abstract

This study describes a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to reliability for tests with items having different numbers of ordered categories. A simulation study is provided to compare the performance of this reliability coefficient, coefficient alpha and population reliability for tests having items with different numbers of ordered categories, a one-factor and a bifactor structures, and different skewness distributions of test scores. Results indicated that the proposed reliability coefficient was close to the population reliability in most conditions. An empirical example was used to illustrate the performance of the different coefficients for a test of items with two or three ordered categories.