AN EXPLORATORY AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR-ANALYTIC INVESTIGATION OF ITEMWORDING EFFECTS ON THE OBTAINED FACTOR STRUCTURES OF SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE MEASURES

Item wording effects were investigated using scenarios depicting a fic titious leaders behavior, 496 respondents, and a questionnaire contain ing regular, polar opposite, negated polar opposite, and negated regul ar item versions. Oblique-rotated exploratory factor-analytic results showed clear item wording factors; confirmatory factor-analytic result s showed the item formats to yield separate wording factors but that t he regular items had substantially more trait variance than did the ot her items formats. Implications for future research are discussed.