# Adding indices and computing reliability estimates" In tidycomm: Data Modification and Analysis for Communication Research

knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>" )  Tidycomm provides a workflow to quickly add mean/sum indices of several variables to the dataset and compute reliability estimates for those added indices: • add_index() adds a mean or sum index of the specified variables • get_reliability() computes reliability estimates for all added indices library(tidycomm)  Once again, we will again sample data from the Worlds of Journalism 2012-16 study for demonstration purposes. WoJ  ethics_1 to ethics_4 measure agreement with statements concerning ethics in journalism and may be combined into an index of 'ethical flexbility', while the items starting with trust_ measure trust in various political institutions and thus may be combined into an index of trust in politics. ## Add mean and sum indices add_index() adds a mean index of specified variables to the data. The second (or first, if used in a pipe) argument is the name of index variable to be created: WoJ %>% add_index(ethical_flexibility, ethics_1, ethics_2, ethics_3, ethics_4) %>% # Select variables of relevance for output dplyr::select(ethical_flexibility, ethics_1, ethics_2, ethics_3, ethics_4)  To create a sum index instead, set type = "sum": WoJ %>% add_index(ethical_flexibility, ethics_1, ethics_2, ethics_3, ethics_4, type = "sum") %>% # Select variables of relevance for output dplyr::select(ethical_flexibility, ethics_1, ethics_2, ethics_3, ethics_4)  ## Compute reliability estimates of created indices Use get_reliability() to compute reliability/internal consistency estimates for indices created with add_index(). Passing no further arguments to the function will automatically compute reliability estimates for all indices created with add_index() found in the data and output Cronbach's$\alpha$along with descriptives and index information. # Add two indices to data WoJ <- WoJ %>% add_index(ethical_flexibility, ethics_1, ethics_2, ethics_3, ethics_4) %>% add_index(trust_in_politics, trust_parliament, trust_government, trust_parties, trust_politicians) WoJ %>% get_reliability()  If you only want reliability estimates for specific indices, pass their names as function arguments. WoJ %>% get_reliability(trust_in_politics)  Essentially, get_reliability() provides a wrapper for the ci.reliability function from the MBESS package. Thus, all arguments of MBESS::ci.reliability() can be passed to get_reliability(). For example, to output$\omega$instead of Cronbach's$\alpha\$ including robust maximum likelihood confidence intervals, you can type:

WoJ %>%
get_reliability(type = 'omega', interval.type = 'mlr')


See the function documentation for more info (and don't forget to cite the MBESS package if using get_reliability()).

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tidycomm documentation built on July 6, 2021, 5:07 p.m.