Hello,
I want to know if there is a valid way to combine three different scales into one continuous variable.
- Loneliness: 1 question on a 5-point scale
- Isolation: 3 questions on a 4-point scale
- Perceived social support: 12 questions on a 7-point scale
I know it's dangerous to put different scales together, but according to previous studies, these three are sub-factors of "social isolation", and there are scales that integrates these three in one scale. Unfortunately, the integrated scale was not used in the data I use, so I am trying to find the way i can integrate separate scales.
The first thing I tried was the latent profile analysis. As a result of LPA, I got the class variable which is ordinal, but when I tried the meologit command to verify the influencing factors for it, the fixed model was okay but the random coefficient model did not proceed. I guess it is because the number of goups and samples per group is not enough to run multi-level logistic regression with random coefficient.
To combine scales into a continuous variable(because I got to know my data size is not enough for multilevel logistic), I'm considering using z-score and factor analysis but i am not convinced if it is okay.
Please give me any advices.
Thank you!
I want to know if there is a valid way to combine three different scales into one continuous variable.
- Loneliness: 1 question on a 5-point scale
- Isolation: 3 questions on a 4-point scale
- Perceived social support: 12 questions on a 7-point scale
I know it's dangerous to put different scales together, but according to previous studies, these three are sub-factors of "social isolation", and there are scales that integrates these three in one scale. Unfortunately, the integrated scale was not used in the data I use, so I am trying to find the way i can integrate separate scales.
The first thing I tried was the latent profile analysis. As a result of LPA, I got the class variable which is ordinal, but when I tried the meologit command to verify the influencing factors for it, the fixed model was okay but the random coefficient model did not proceed. I guess it is because the number of goups and samples per group is not enough to run multi-level logistic regression with random coefficient.
To combine scales into a continuous variable(because I got to know my data size is not enough for multilevel logistic), I'm considering using z-score and factor analysis but i am not convinced if it is okay.
Please give me any advices.
Thank you!
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