The lavaan model object provided after running the cfa, sem, growth, or lavaan functions.
Details
Given that a composite score (W) is a weighted sum of item scores:
W = old{w}^prime old{x} ,
where old{x} is a k \times 1 vector of the scores of each item, old{w} is a k \times 1 weight vector of each item, and k represents the number of items. Then, maximal reliability is obtained by finding old{w} such that reliability attains its maximum (Li, 1997; Raykov, 2012). Note that the reliability can be obtained by
where old{S}_T is the covariance matrix explained by true scores and old{S}_X is the observed covariance matrix. Numerical method is used to find old{w} in this function.
For continuous items, old{S}_T can be calculated by
old{S}_T = Λ Ψ Λ^prime,
where Λ is the factor loading matrix and Ψ is the covariance matrix among factors. old{S}_X is directly obtained by covariance among items.
For categorical items, Green and Yang's (2009) method is used for calculating old{S}_T and old{S}_X. The element i and j of old{S}_T can be calculated by
where C_i and C_j represents the number of thresholds in Items i and j, τ_{x_{c_i}} represents the threshold c_i of Item i, τ_{x_{c_j}} represents the threshold c_i of Item j, Φ_1(τ_{x_{c_i}}) is the cumulative probability of τ_{x_{c_i}} given a univariate standard normal cumulative distribution and Φ_2≤ft( τ_{x_{c_i}}, τ_{x_{c_j}}, ρ
ight) is the joint cumulative probability of τ_{x_{c_i}} and τ_{x_{c_j}} given a bivariate standard normal cumulative distribution with a correlation of ρ
where ρ^*_{ij} is a polychoric correlation between Items i and j.
Value
Maximal reliability values of each group. The maximal-reliability weights are also provided. Users may extracted the weighted by the attr function (see example below).
Li, H. (1997). A unifying expression for the maximal reliability of a linear composite. Psychometrika, 62, 245-249.
Raykov, T. (2012). Scale construction and development using structural equation modeling. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 472-494). New York: Guilford.
See Also
reliability for reliability of an unweighted composite score