An Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor-Analytic Investigation of Item Wording Effects on the Obtained Factor Structures of Survey Questionnaire Measures

Item wording effects were investigated using scenarios depicting a fictitious leaders behavior, 496 respondents, and a questionnaire containing regular, polar opposite, negated polar opposite, and negated regular item versions. Oblique-rotated exploratory factor-analytic results showed clear item wording factors; confirmatory factor-analytic results showed the item formats to yield separate wording factors but that the regular items had substantially more trait variance than did the other item formats. Implications for future research are discussed

The Effect of Negation and Polar Opposite Item Reversals on Questionnaire Reliability and Validity: An Experimental Investigation

This research was concerned with the effect of item wording on questionnaire reliability and validity. The subjects were 280 business undergraduate students who read a scenario describing a hypothetical leader's behavior and then completed one of four different questionnaires to describe that leader. Comprising the experimental treatments, the questionnaires included four different types of items: regular (e.g., "I am happy"), polar opposite (e.g., "I am sad"), negated polar opposite (e.g., "I am not sad"), and negated regular (e.g., "I am not happy") items. The results indicated significantly lower coefficient alpha internal-consistency reliabilities for the polar opposite and negated polar opposite items as compared with those for the regular and negated regular items. Using accuracy scores, one-way analyses-of-variance and posthoc directional t-tests showed the same results for validity of measurement. Implications for future questionnaire development and research are briefly considered

Validation of a New Leader-Member Exchange Scale (Lmx-6) Using Hierarchically-Nested Maximum Likelihood Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The convergent and discriminant validity of a short (6-item) new leader-member exchange scale (LMX-6) was investigated using hierarchically-nested maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analyses. Using data from a sample of 221 MBA students, the validity of the new scale was confirmed by its high and significant loadings on a leader-member exchange factor and by the superiority of a model with a separate leader-member exchange factor over all other rival models. Directions for future research are briefly discussed