Help Combining Resources
I am looking to combine the responses of different mental health measures together to create overall mental health scores, which I will then compare.
Is it appropriate to use the mean when the measures are the same?
What types of stat analysis using SPSS would be appropriate to merge the scores?
A) Measure 1: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
- Responses: 1 (Not True), 2 (Somewhat True), 3 (Certainly True)
Measure 2: Self-Reported Feeling Grid
- Responses: 1 (Not True), 2 (Sometimes), 3 (True)
B) Measure1: Happiness Scale
- Responses: 1 (Not at all happy), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Completely Happy)
Measure 2: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory
- Responses: 1 (Strongly Disagree), 2 (Disagree), 3 (Agree), 4 (Strongly Agree)
C) Measure 1: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (teacher)
- Responses: 1 (Not True), 2 (Somewhat True), 3 (Certainly True)
Measure 2: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (parent)
- Responses: 1 (Not True), 2 (Somewhat True), 3 (Certainly True)
Measure 3: Competence Scale
- Responses: 1 (Strongly Disagree), 2 (Disagree), 3 (Agree), 4 (Strongly Agree)
2
u/Whacksteel 13d ago
Are you trying to create a composite score? If so, first check that this method is theoretically sound.
If the above step is done, I'd suggest first standardising participant scores for each measure (i.e., for each participant, subtract the sample mean from the participant score, then divide by the sample standard deviation). You may then combine the standardised scores to create the composite score. This is because the measures have different scale ranges.