Wording Effects in the Measurement of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity: A Multitrait-Multimethod Analysis

A Multitrait-Multimethod(MTMM) matrix was used to evaluate the effect of item wording (i.e., comfort versus stress-worded) on measures of role conflict and role ambiguity. The results indicated that wording factors explained a significant amount of item variance. Moreover, several substantive correlations between role conflict, role ambiguity, and other constructs (e.g., role overload) were reduced when wording factors were taken into account. These findings point to the need to more fully consider and understand item wording. Future research should determine the cause of wording factors, which may be due to cognitive influences (e.g., carelessness), or may represent unmeasured substantive constructs, such as negative affectivity (NA) or social desirability.

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