Different values of items

[mharlfinger]

Dear all,

as an absolute PLS beginner I have a basic question regarding the use of items / indicators.

In my model I’m measuring the personal development during an international assignment. I have created various scales (e.g. adjustment, flexibility) with a couple of items. Those items are measured “At the start of the assignment” and “At the moment” in order to evaluate a possible change.

I would like to know which one of the following item values should be used for the calculation of my SEM:
- Value “At the start of the assignment”
- Value “At the moment”
- Mean value ((“Start” + “At the moment”)/2)
- Development value (“At the moment”-“Start”)

Any help is much appreciated!

Cheers,

Matthias Harlfinger

[Diogenes]

Hi Matthias,
just one idea:
run a model for "at the start" and another for "at the moment"
save unstandardized scores of LVs for both the models.
Compare the means of these scores (t-test, Wilcoxon, or bootstrap).
Best regards.
Bido

[mharlfinger]

Dear Prof. Bido,

thank you for your message. I will give that a try.

Kind regards,

Matthias Harlfinger

[viswadatta]

First develope constructs based on theory and find indicators as variables for each construct. That will indicate what values to use.