Evaluating factor structure of Persian version of lifelong learning assessment tool using ordinal versus quantitative methods in confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract

In factor analysis, despite ordinal nature of the data, the assumption is that the data are normal quantitatively. The present study aimed to survey the factor structure of Persian Version of lifelong learning assessment tool JeffSPLL-MS using the most accurate method in confirmatory factor analysis. In this cross-sectional study, 430 students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences were selected randomly. Persian version of JeffSPLLMS tool was used. First, assuming data scale being quantitative, three assessment methods were used, and by assuming data are ordinal, three assessment methods were used in confirmatory factor analysis, and eventually, the above mentioned six methods were compared. For comparing different methods, CFI, TLI and RMSEA indices were used. The three-factor structure of Persian version of JeffSPLL-MS had acceptable fit to the data. In all of the six methods, model indices confirmed the model fit, and ordinal models with correction had better fit compared to quantitative models. The result of the current study confirmed three-factor structure of Persian version of lifelong learning assessment tool. Although in confirmatory factor analysis, the common approach, taking into account the scale of quantitative data and using the maximum likelihood method, however, the results of this study showed that taking an ordinal scale data will result in improvement of fit model parameters.