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Testing the Assumptions Underlying Tetrachoric Correlations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Bengt Muthén and
Charles Hofacker
Bengt Muthén*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles
Charles Hofacker
Affiliation:
College of Business and Marketing, Florida State University
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Bengt Muthén, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
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Abstract

A method is proposed for empirically testing the appropriateness of using tetrachoric correlations for a set of dichotomous variables. Trivariate marginal information is used to get a set of one-degree of freedom chi-square tests of the underlying normality. It is argued that such tests should preferrably preceed further modeling of tetrachorics, for example, modeling by factor analysis. The assumptions are tested in some real and simulated data.

Keywords

normalitydichotomous variablesLISCOMPfactor analysis

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 1988, pp. 563 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

Presented at the Psychometric Society meeting in Santa Barbara, California, June 25–26, 1984. The research of the first author was supported by Grant No. SES-8312583 from the National Science Foundation.

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