A researcher administers a 40-item instrument that measures anxiety of 30 mothers of 9-month-old triplets, repeating it in two weeks. Over half of the scores are higher. Why? (Select all that apply.)
a. The mothers are more anxious. The babies are becoming more mobile, and the mothers' anxiety is well founded.
b. There may have been random error of measurement. The researcher should compare the group means; if they are the same, it is only random error.
c. This may represent systematic error of measurement.
d. This may have poor validity for this population and concept.
e. This test may have poor reliability for this population and concept.
ANS: A, B, E
Stability reliability is concerned with the consistency of repeated measures of the same attribute with the use of the same scale or instrument over time. It is usually referred to as test-retest reliability. It reveals random error of measurement. This change in scores could be due to normal random measurement error. If so, the sum of the error (the measured change) for all subjects should be zero, and the means on the two days should be the same. Random error does not influence the mean to be higher or lower but, rather, increases the amount of unexplained variance around the mean. Systematic error is not revealed on test-retest. Test-retest does not measure validity but reliability. On the other hand, test-retest reliability requires the assumption that the factor being measured has not changed between the measurement points. Many of the phenomena studied in nursing, such as hope, coping, pain, and anxiety, do change over short intervals.
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