IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jedbes/v46y2021i5p592-610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimating Difference-Score Reliability in Pretest–Posttest Settings

Author

Listed:
  • Zhengguo Gu

    (Bol.com)

  • Wilco H. M. Emons

    (1323Cito)

  • Klaas Sijtsma

    (7899Tilburg University)

Abstract

Clinical, medical, and health psychologists use difference scores obtained from pretest–posttest designs employing the same test to assess intraindividual change possibly caused by an intervention addressing, for example, anxiety, depression, eating disorder, or addiction. Reliability of difference scores is important for interpreting observed change. This article compares the well-documented traditional method and the unfamiliar, rarely used item-level method for estimating difference-score reliability. We simulated data under various conditions that are typical of change assessment in pretest–posttest designs. The item-level method had smaller bias and greater precision than the traditional method and may be recommended for practical use.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhengguo Gu & Wilco H. M. Emons & Klaas Sijtsma, 2021. "Estimating Difference-Score Reliability in Pretest–Posttest Settings," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 46(5), pages 592-610, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jedbes:v:46:y:2021:i:5:p:592-610
    DOI: 10.3102/1076998620986948
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/1076998620986948
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3102/1076998620986948?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jos Berge & Gregor Sočan, 2004. "The greatest lower bound to the reliability of a test and the hypothesis of unidimensionality," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 613-625, December.
    2. Louis Guttman, 1945. "A basis for analyzing test-retest reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 10(4), pages 255-282, December.
    3. Lee Cronbach, 1951. "Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 16(3), pages 297-334, September.
    4. Peter Bentler, 2009. "Alpha, Dimension-Free, and Model-Based Internal Consistency Reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 137-143, March.
    5. Fumiko Samejima, 1970. "Estimation of latent ability using a response pattern of graded scores," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 35(1), pages 139-139, March.
    6. Brian Woodhouse & Paul Jackson, 1977. "Lower bounds for the reliability of the total score on a test composed of non-homogeneous items: II: A search procedure to locate the greatest lower bound," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 579-591, December.
    7. Zhengguo Gu & Wilco H. M. Emons & Klaas Sijtsma, 2018. "Review of Issues About Classical Change Scores: A Multilevel Modeling Perspective on Some Enduring Beliefs," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 83(3), pages 674-695, September.
    8. Klaas Sijtsma, 2009. "On the Use, the Misuse, and the Very Limited Usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 107-120, March.
    9. Paul Jackson & Christian Agunwamba, 1977. "Lower bounds for the reliability of the total score on a test composed of non-homogeneous items: I: Algebraic lower bounds," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 42(4), pages 567-578, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David J. Hessen, 2017. "Lower Bounds to the Reliabilities of Factor Score Estimators," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 82(3), pages 648-659, September.
    2. Tyler Hunt & Peter Bentler, 2015. "Quantile Lower Bounds to Reliability Based on Locally Optimal Splits," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 80(1), pages 182-195, March.
    3. Eunseong Cho, 2021. "Neither Cronbach’s Alpha nor McDonald’s Omega: A Commentary on Sijtsma and Pfadt," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 86(4), pages 877-886, December.
    4. Peter M. Bentler, 2016. "Covariate-free and Covariate-dependent Reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 81(4), pages 907-920, December.
    5. Klaas Sijtsma & Julius M. Pfadt, 2021. "Part II: On the Use, the Misuse, and the Very Limited Usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha: Discussing Lower Bounds and Correlated Errors," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 86(4), pages 843-860, December.
    6. Markus Pauly & Maria Umlauft & Ali Ünlü, 2018. "Resampling-Based Inference Methods for Comparing Two Coefficients Alpha," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 83(1), pages 203-222, March.
    7. Klaas Sijtsma & Ivo Molenaar, 1987. "Reliability of test scores in nonparametric item response theory," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 52(1), pages 79-97, March.
    8. Jules L. Ellis, 2021. "A Test Can Have Multiple Reliabilities," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 86(4), pages 869-876, December.
    9. Peter M. Bentler, 2021. "Alpha, FACTT, and Beyond," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 86(4), pages 861-868, December.
    10. Maciej Koniewski & Ilona Barańska & Violetta Kijowska & Jenny T. Steen & Anne B. Wichmann & Sheila Payne & Giovanni Gambassi & Nele Den Noortgate & Harriet Finne-Soveri & Tinne Smets & Lieve den Block, 2022. "Measuring relatives’ perceptions of end-of-life communication with physicians in five countries: a psychometric analysis," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1561-1570, December.
    11. Anne-Catherine Guio & David Gordon & Eric Marlier & Hector Najera & Marco Pomati, 2018. "Towards an EU measure of child deprivation," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 835-860, June.
    12. Jos Berge & Gregor Sočan, 2004. "The greatest lower bound to the reliability of a test and the hypothesis of unidimensionality," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 69(4), pages 613-625, December.
    13. Jeanne A. Teresi & Katja Ocepek-Welikson & John A. Toner & Marjorie Kleinman & Mildred Ramirez & Joseph P. Eimicke & Barry J. Gurland & Albert Siu, 2017. "Methodological Issues in Measuring Subjective Well-Being and Quality-of-Life: Applications to Assessment of Affect in Older, Chronically and Cognitively Impaired, Ethnically Diverse Groups Using the F," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 251-288, June.
    14. Érika Martins Silva Ramos & Cecilia Jakobsson Bergstad, 2021. "The Psychology of Sharing: Multigroup Analysis among Users and Non-Users of Carsharing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-17, June.
    15. Ke-Hai Yuan & Peter Bentler, 2002. "On robusiness of the normal-theory based asymptotic distributions of three reliability coefficient estimates," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-259, June.
    16. Wang, Selena & De Boeck, Paul, 2020. "When high reliability does not signal reliable detection of experimental effects," OSF Preprints gz8pw, Center for Open Science.
    17. Jos Berge & Willem Hofstee, 1999. "Coefficients alpha and reliabilities of unrotated and rotated components," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 83-90, March.
    18. Alexander Shapiro & Jos Berge, 2000. "The asymptotic bias of minimum trace factor analysis, with applications to the greatest lower bound to reliability," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 65(3), pages 413-425, September.
    19. Branden B. Johnson & Brendon Swedlow, 2024. "Scale reliability of alternative cultural theory survey measures," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 527-557, February.
    20. William Revelle & Richard Zinbarg, 2009. "Coefficients Alpha, Beta, Omega, and the glb: Comments on Sijtsma," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 145-154, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jedbes:v:46:y:2021:i:5:p:592-610. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.