Measuring children's attitudes toward TV commercials: An instrument reliability test

The research deals with an investigation of the reliability of a seven-item test developed by Rossiter (1977) to investigate children's attitudes toward TV commercials. A comparative analysis of the internal-consistency reliability, using Cronbach's alpha, and testretest reliability, using Pearson's r, is presented for two previous studies and the current effort. The effects of extension to a more diverse socioeconomic spectrum and to younger children are discussed. It is concluded that the test should be lengthened and administered to midmiddle and higher SES children. The latter condition is stated since reading skills appear to impinge on reliability scores. This research was supported by a fellowship and grant from the Faculty Research Fund, Western Michigan University. The author is indebted to Professor John R. Rossiter for suggestions concerning this task.