I have a developed a scale. EFA is done. now doing CFA. The scale has 4 sub-scales which are correlated to eachother (ranging from .30 to .70). I need to know should I do first order CFA or second order CFA.
Second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a statistical method employed by the researcher to confirm that the theorized construct in a study loads into certain number of underlying sub-constructs or components.
Hey Umm, I suppose that the answer depends on what your 4 sub-scales are measuring - do you think that they represent some broader construct? For example I could develop a measure of statistics anxiety with 4 subscales (fear of SPSS, anxiety about maths, equation phobia, scatterplot allergy) and I would except that there would a 2nd order 'Stats Anxiety" latent variable. However, there are other measures such as the Big 5 personality scales, where a 2nd order latent variable does no make any sense at all. So you need to think about your subscales and whether they could be explained by another more general factor.
Mark
Thank you Mark Shevlin. Yes my all the 4 sub-scales are represented by a broader construct. so i need to go for 2nd order.
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