Comparison of alternative estimation methods in confirmatory factor analyses of the General Health Questionnaire

This paper examines the implications of violating assumptions concerning the continuity and distributional properties of data in establishing measurement models in social science research. The General Health Questionnaire-12 uses an ordinal response scale. Responses to the GHQ-12 from 201 Hong Kong...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological reports 2005-08, Vol.97 (1), p.3-10
Main Authors: Wang, Wei C, Cunningham, Everarda G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Australia
Emigration and Immigration - statistics & numerical data
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Humans
Least-Squares Analysis
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Statistical
Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Reproducibility of Results
Statistics as Topic
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:This paper examines the implications of violating assumptions concerning the continuity and distributional properties of data in establishing measurement models in social science research. The General Health Questionnaire-12 uses an ordinal response scale. Responses to the GHQ-12 from 201 Hong Kong immigrants on arrival in Australia showed that the data were not normally distributed. A series of confirmatory factor analyses using either a Pearson product-moment or a polychoric correlation input matrix and employing either maximum likelihood, weighted least squares or diagonally weighted least squares estimation methods were conducted on the data. The parameter estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics provided support for using polychoric correlations and diagonally weighted least squares estimation when analyzing ordinal, nonnormal data.
ISSN:0033-2941
DOI:10.2466/PR0.97.5.3-10