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Scale Reliability, Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha, and Violations of Essential Tau-Equivalence with Fixed Congeneric Components
Abstract
The population discrepancy between Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha and scale reliability with fixed congeneric measures, uncorrelated errors, and sampling of subjects is studied. This difference is expressed in terms of individual component violations of the assumption of essential T-equivalence that is necessary and sufficient for Alpha to equal composite reliability. An upper bound of the discrepancy is obtained and its magnitude assessed in practical contexts of informed scale development. As an alternative when the difference may be considerable, a latent variable model is recommended for estimating scale reliability.
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Citations
Cited by
Use Omega Rather than Cronbach’s Alpha for Estimating Reliability. But…
Hayes, A. F., & Coutts, J. J. (2020) · Communication Methods and Measures · doi:10.1080/19312458.2020.1718629 · Cited by 2,675
Thanks coefficient alpha, we’ll take it from here.
McNeish, D. (2018) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/met0000144 · Cited by 2,533
Zinbarg, R. E., Revelle, W., Yovel, I., & Li, W. (2005) · Psychometrika · doi:10.1007/s11336-003-0974-7 · Cited by 1,439
Ponterotto, J. G., & Ruckdeschel, D. E. (2007) · Perceptual and Motor Skills · doi:10.2466/pms.105.3.997-1014 · Cited by 555
Coefficient Alpha and Composite Reliability With Interrelated Nonhomogeneous Items
Raykov, T. (1998) · Applied Psychological Measurement · doi:10.1177/014662169802200407 · Cited by 438
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Metadata
- Authors
- Raykov, T.
- Venue
- Multivariate Behavioral Research
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 1997-10-01
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 329-353
- ISSN
- 0027-3171 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1972907619
- Cited by
- 481
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 2.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Scale Reliability, Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha, and Violations of Essential Tau-Equivalence with Fixed Congeneric Components. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1207/s15327906mbr3204_2
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- Raykov, T. (1997). Scale Reliability, Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha, and Violations of Essential Tau-Equivalence with Fixed Congeneric Components. Multivariate Behavioral Research. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr3204_2
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