McDonald's Omega (ω) Reliability Coefficient

McDonald's omega is a factor-analysis-based reliability coefficient introduced by Roderick P. McDonald (1999) that quantifies the internal consistency of a composite score without requiring the restrictive assumption that all items contribute equally to the latent factor. It yields two complementary indices: ω_total, which captures overall reliability of the sum score, and ω_hierarchical (ωh), which reports how much of the composite's variance is explained specifically by a single general factor.