A researcher develops a new instrument for measuring adjustment to widowhood in dependents whose spouses were killed in armed conflict. The researcher's initial instrument contains 55 items, and the researcher wants to trim these down to 25 or 30 but doesn't want to lose any of the main concepts. What method of statistical analysis will the researcher use, in order to pare this tool down to a manageable size without loss of content?

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Factor analysis is the appropriate statistical method for reducing the number of variables (in this case, items on an instrument) while retaining as much of the original information as possible. It identifies underlying factors or constructs that explain the pattern of correlations within a set of observed variables, allowing the researcher to pare down the instrument without losing the main concepts it measures.

A Researcher Develops a New Instrument for Measuring Adjustment to Widowhood