How can researchers properly build and test measurement scales? Boateng et al. (2018) offer a practical primer breaking the process into three phases and nine steps to help scientists develop reliable, valid tools.
Developing and testing scales is essential across health, social, and behavioral sciences. Even so, the techniques involved can feel heavy, packed with jargon, unfamiliar, and demanding of time and resources. To make matters harder, graduate programs rarely teach these methods. Because of this, Boateng et al. set out to summarize scale development as clearly and simply as possible, helping researchers both construct trustworthy new scales and improve tools that already exist. Rather than offering a systematic review, the authors combine technical literature with hands-on lessons gathered from their own decades of experience creating and adapting scales to measure complex issues.
The authors divide the overall process into three main phases that cover nine steps, adding examples of best practices along the way. In the first phase, researchers write the individual survey questions and check that their content is valid. The second phase focuses on building the scale itself, which involves pre-testing questions, running the survey, cutting down the number of items, and identifying how many distinct factors the scale actually measures. In the third phase, researchers evaluate the scale by testing its dimensions, checking its reliability, and confirming its validity. Ultimately, Boateng et al. explain that this guide equips researchers and practitioners with both the conceptual foundation and practical methods needed to advance our understanding of health, social, and behavioral outcomes.
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Boateng, G. O., Neilands, T. B., Frongillo, E. A., Melgar-Quiñonez, H. R., & Young, S. L. (2018). Best Practices for Developing and Validating Scales for Health, Social, and Behavioral Research: A Primer. Frontiers in Public Health, 6, 149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00149