Page 27 - A Step-By-Step Guide to Questionnaire Validation Research

1.2.4 Questionnaire Type 4: Questionnaire to measure

latent variables

The fourth and final type of questionnaire is

designed to measure one or more latent variables. Since

these latent variables cannot be measured or observed

directly (such as by using any machine or measuring

device). Therefore, they will have to be inferred from

other variables that can be measured or observed directly.

In the medical field, a few examples of such questionnaires

that fall under this category are Medical Outcome Study

Short-form36 (MOS SF36), Depression Anxiety Stress

Scale (DASS) and Summary Diabetes Self-care Activities

(SDSCA) (Ware & Sherbourne, 1992; Lovibond &

Lovibond, 1995; Toobert & Glasgow, 1994) which are

widely used for measuring latent variables. An example is

shown in Figure 1.1 where the latent variable of “Job

Satisfaction” is measured by seven other latent variables