I am conducting a quantitative dissertation using a correlational design. I will have Likert scale results from a stress survey and "Years of Experience" (0-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20+)from each participant.
My current professor suggested: ""You will need to use Laerd to identify your variable types and approach. A traditional correlational study will not work here because of variable types and also distribution of numbers."
I located recommendations to treat my Likert scale variable results from the Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey as Ordinal, while converting the Ratio variable of Officer Years of Experience to an Ordinal as well to allow for correlation. Does this seem like an appropriate course of action?
Additionally, I am unclear what type of modified correlational study would be required, and how distribution of numbers relates in this case.
Any suggestions or clarification anyone can offer?
Thank you in advance!
Hi, Robert,
I am quite reluctant to appear to disagree with the advice your professor offered, but I might suggest that there is a miscommunication of some kind. Pearson r is clearly not the correct statistical test for you data, but Spearman rho is fairly robust the testing the association of ordinal scale variables.
Thank you!
I have also been looking through Laerd's resources. There, Jonckheere-Terpstra is also recommended as a possible choice for comparing my variables. However, I have not heard of this test before, so I will continue to research.
Hi there,
Yes. I recommend your Professor's suggestion. Converting your 'Years of experience' factor to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or some similar ordinal scale and matching it to your 'stress' factor will help you to correlate using Spearman's Rho (that is - Spearman's rank statistic). That said, you will need the same number of measures for both factors' scales and make sure that they are ordered in the same increasing scale! So 1 to 5 for factor 1 in terms of increasing 'stress' and 1 to 5 for factor 2 in terms of increasing 'years of experience'.
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