A short measure of general policy alienation: Scale development using a 10-step procedure

Public administration research is becoming increasingly quantitative. As seen in psychological and managerial research, the result is a growing demand for valid and reliable measures. Given the tradition of contextually embedded research in public administration - where research should cover multiple factors to find useful answers to real-life problems - survey research should ideally incorporate many measures. This is driving a need for short measures that do not compromise on validity and reliability. In this study, a short measure of general policy alienation is developed and tested, observing stringent criteria. The analyses on three independent datasets (N=1,183, N=354, and N=933) show that the original multidimensional 26-item measure can be abbreviated to a short five-item measure with limited compromises on validity and reliability. Practical applications and methodological implications regarding both the developed measure and the 10-step procedure used are discussed.

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