Reliability and validity of egocentered network data collected via web: A meta-analysis of multilevel multitrait multimethod studies

Our goal in this article is to assess reliability and validity of egocentered network data collected through web surveys using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis under the multitrait multimethod approach. In this study, we analyze a questionnaire of social support of Ph.D. students in three European countries. The traits used are the frequency of social contact questions. The methods used are web survey design variants. We consider egocentered network data as hierarchical; therefore, a multilevel analysis is required. Within and between-ego reliabilities and validities are defined and interpreted. Afterwards, we proceed to a meta-analysis of the results of the three countries where within and between-ego validities and reliabilities are predicted from survey design variables which have to do with question order (by questions or by alters), response category labels (end labels or all labels) and lay-out of the questionnaire (graphical display or plain text). Results show that question order by questions, all-labeled response categories and a graphical display lay-out with images lead to a better data quality. Our basic approach consisting on multilevel and meta-analysis can be applied to evaluate the quality of any type of egocentered network questionnaire, regardless of the data collection mode. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.