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I have two datasets and they both have the same set of independent variables:

  • 9 of them are on scale from 0 till 100
  • 3 of them are categorical(1 with two types categories, 1 with three types of categories, 1 with six types of categories)

The meaning of the dependent variables are the same but their scales are different.

  • How happy are you about your marriage? These scores are on a scale from 0 till 5: Let's call this group A
  • Are happy with your marriage? These scores are as yes or no: Let's call this group B

I want to check whether Group B and Group A perceived the Happiness differently by checking whether the combination (with interaction and without) of our independent variables affected the happiness differently from each-other.

How can I test this?

Update: Applying the assumption: a scale transformation: 1 till 3 = bad and 4 and 5 = good is possible for me. I want to merge the two groups together.

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  • $\begingroup$ What are the sample sizes? $\endgroup$
    – Galen
    Commented Mar 13 at 20:08

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You do not need to give up as Kamil Kaczmarek suggests, and you also do not need to shoehorn a transformed variable into a logistic regression as Peter Flom suggested (although to be fair to his intent he expressed reservation about the idea). I agree with Peter that Dale C's suggestion of using a $\chi^2$ test doesn't work (due to change of variables usually entailing a different sampling distribution for the test statistic).

Instead you can develop a new model from first principles. You've noted that you have different measure scales that in some sense are getting at some shared latent construct. So go with that; you need a measurement model with two types of measurements.

You also ought to develop a causal model, which you should have done before getting into the statistics. With a causal model you can then formulate a principled statistical model, although I can't tell you exactly how to do that because your scientific domain is outside my expertise. I would suggest watching Science Before Statistics: Causal Inference to wet your appetite, and then carefully go through Causal Inference in Statistics: A Primer. Then read A Crash Course in Good and Bad Controls to get some less theoretical advice about how to use your causal model address Peter's concern about covariate selection.

Since the statistical modelling choices depend on the causal modelling choices, I cannot recommend a specific statistical model either. But here is an incomplete toy model to give you a sense of what this approach can look like.

Suppose a latent variable

$$U \sim \mathcal{N}(0,1)$$

which relates to the observed binary observations via $$\text{logit}(p) = f(U)$$

$$X_1 \sim \text{Bernoulli}(p)$$

and relates to the Likert-type scale via

$$X_2 \sim \text{OrderedLogit}(g(U))$$

where $f$ and $g$ are suitable choices of functions. While you will likely need to include more variables (errors/latent variables/covariates), the basic point of this toy model is to explicitly show an approach where you are taking measurements of the same underlying construct $U$ which is only observed as $X_1$ or $X_2$. Keeping your causal assumptions in mind, you can follow Bayesian workflow to refine your statistical model.

What's more, if your causal assumptions allow (i.e. not MNAR), then you can use Bayesian model-driven imputation to get a probability distribution over counterfactual measurements. For example, you could obtain a probability distribution of what a given participant would have answered on the 0-5 scale had they responded on that scale instead of the binary response scale.

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I think, that you cannot. Comparing data requires stating objective, numerical differences, which you don't have. You would have to assume, that answers 'yes' or 'no' corresponds to some numbers, ranges of numbers or some combination of numbers. But that would be hard simplification only based on your subjective assumption. People perception of these two scales may be so different, that ascribing any numbers would be impossible.

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I am not so sanguine about assuming 1 to 3 = bad and 4 to 5 = good. But, if you do that, then you can do logistic regression with "marital status" as the dependent variable and "group" as one of the independent variables. You may want to add covariates. Indeed, I'd be very suspicious of an analysis that a) was not randomized and b) Did not include covariates. You mention a bunch of independent variables (without saying what they are) and these may be good candidates.

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