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On the Mean and Variance of the Tetrachoric Correlation Coefficient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Morton B. Brown  and
Jacqueline K. Benedetti
Morton B. Brown
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
Jacqueline K. Benedetti*
Affiliation:
University of California at Los Angeles
*
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Dr. Jacqueline Benedetti at the Department of Biomathematics, AV-111, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Ca. 90024.
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Abstract

Estimates of the mean and standard deviation of the tetrachoric correlation are compared with their expected values in several 2 × 2 tables. Significant bias in the mean is found when the minimum cell frequency is less than 5. Three formulas for the standard deviation are compared and guidelines given for their use.

Keywords

fourfold correlation2 × 2 frequency tablebivariate normal
Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , September 1977 , pp. 347 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

This research was performed when the first author was on leave at the University of California at Los Angeles and was supported in part by NIH Special Research Resources Grant RR-3. The second author was also supported by NIH Fellowship 5 F22 GM00328-02.

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