McDonald's Hierarchical Omega (ωh)

McDonald's hierarchical omega (ωh) is a coefficient derived from a bifactor confirmatory factor model that quantifies what proportion of total-score variance is attributable to a single general factor rather than to group-specific factors or item-level error. Introduced by Roderick P. McDonald (1999) and elaborated for bifactor applications by Reise and colleagues (2013) and Rodriguez and colleagues (2016), it is the primary index used in psychometrics to evaluate whether a composite total score is a defensible summary of a multidimensional scale.