URGENT: Exploratory Factor Analysis

[Flo89]

Hi all,

I have a question about EFA. My supervisor constructed two different scales that are related to the same construct, in this case, parenting. Two of those scales are covering different aspect of parenting. They are both 4-point Likert scales,
however, the anchors for the scales are somewhat different...

E.g. Scale 1 asks How much do you know about?....... 0(Nothing at all), 1(Very Little), 2(quite a lot), and 3(A great deal)

Scale 2 asks How true is this of you?.......... 0(Not at all), 1(A little; some of the time), 2(Quite a lot; a lot of the time), and 3 (very much; most of the time)

I was planning to do an EFA to see whether these scales are actually tapping on what they are suppose to measure; but right now im having doubts with it because the anchors somewhat different and the questions they are asking is different too... so I am wondering... with these different anchors, could I still use an EFA?

Hope to get a reply soon! Thanks!

[terzi]

Hi Flo89

As far as my humble knowledge reaches, there wouldn't be problems with your Exploratory Factor Analysis because of this issue. Maybe, the only problem you could have, yet I wouldn't call it a problem, is that those two sets of questions may be measuring different ideas, so your results with the EFA may lead to two latent variables, with each one being measured by one set of the questions.

Hope this helps