David L. Streiner

David Lloyd Streiner (born 12 November 1941) is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and health-research methodologist known for contributions to psychometrics, biostatistics, and evidence-based mental health. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he held faculty appointments at McMaster University and the University of Toronto and served as founding director of the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit and Assistant Vice President of Research at the Baycrest Centre. He is co-author of widely used texts including Health Measurement Scales and Biostatistics: The Bare Essentials. According to Google Scholar, Streiner has authored or co-authored more than 450 peer-reviewed publications with over 90,000 citations and an h-index exceeding 125.

Early life and education Streiner was born in the Bronx, New York, and holds dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and earned a B.A. in psychology from the City College of New York, followed by an M.S. (1965) and a Ph.D. (1968) in clinical psychology from Syracuse University. He completed a clinical internship at the Syracuse Veterans Administration Hospital (1966–1967).

Academic and professional career After completing his doctorate, Streiner joined McMaster University's medical school (Hamilton, Ontario) in 1968 as a faculty member in Psychiatry, later also holding a joint appointment in Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (now Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact). Between 1974 and 1986 he was Chief Psychologist at McMaster University Medical Centre and chaired both the Research and Clinical Ethics Committees. He retired from McMaster in 1998 as Professor Emeritus in Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact and in Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences.

From 1998 to 2008, Streiner served at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care (Toronto) as Assistant Vice-president for Research and founding Director of the Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit (KLARU). Concurrently, he was a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. KLARU was established as Baycrest's applied research arm focused on implementation and evaluation of evidence-based practice.

Research

Psychometrics and scale development Streiner is best known for his contributions to health measurement and psychometrics. Alongside Geoffrey R. Norman and later John Cairney, he co-authored Health Measurement Scales: A Practical Guide to Their Development and Use, first published in 1989.

In a series of journal articles, Streiner addressed misconceptions around Cronbach's alpha and internal consistency, cautioning against its over-interpretation as a sole measure of scale reliability.

Biostatistics and epidemiology Streiner has also written extensively on applied biostatistics for health professionals.

Psychiatric epidemiology and quality of life research Streiner's research addressed topics such as adolescent depression, schizophrenia, mental health among single mothers, and psychosocial interventions for borderline personality disorder. At McMaster and Baycrest, he contributed to studies on low birthweight infants, quality of life in epilepsy, and outcome measures in Alzheimer's disease and stroke rehabilitation. With Paula Goering and Carol Adair, he co-led a large multi-site study on housing and mental health among homeless individuals.

Working with Gabriel Ronen and Peter Rosenbaum, he helped develop quality-of-life measures for children with epilepsy, which received international recognition in 2002.

Editorial and professional service Streiner was one of the founding editors of the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health (BMJ Publishing Group).

Awards and honours

U.S. Public Health Fellowship (1963–1964) U.S. Public Health Fellowship (1967–1968) Fellow, Canadian Psychological Association Fellow, Society for Personality Assessment Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 5) Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 12) Fellow, Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Citation Award, International Association of Personnel in Employment Security International Bureau for Epilepsy / Sanofi-Synthélabo Prize (2002) Dorfman Journal Paper Award, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (2003) Graduate Course Director Award, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto (2004) Alexander Leighton Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology, Canadian Academy of Psychiatric Epidemiology / Canadian Psychiatric Association (2004) Book of the Year Award, American Journal of Nursing (2010) Community of Distinction, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University (2023) Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Canadian Psychology, Canadian Psychological Association (2024)

Selected publications

Norman, G. R., & Streiner, D. L. (2008). Biostatistics: The Bare Essentials (3rd ed.). Shelton, CT: PMPH-USA. . Streiner, D. L., & Norman, G. R. (2008). PDQ Statistics (3rd ed.). Shelton, CT: PMPH-USA. . Streiner, D. L., Norman, G. R., & Cairney, J. (2024). Health Measurement Scales: A Practical Guide to Their Development and Use (6th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. . Streiner, D. L., & Sidani, S. (2009). When Research Goes Off the Rails: Lessons Learned from Research Disasters. New York: Oxford University Press. . Cairney, J., & Streiner, D. L. (2010). Mental Disorders in Canada: An Epidemiological Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. .

Journal articles

Streiner, D. L. (2003). “Starting at the beginning: An introduction to coefficient alpha and internal consistency.” Journal of Personality Assessment, 80(1), 99–103. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA8001_18. Streiner, D. L. (1994). “Figuring out factors: The use and misuse of factor analysis.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 39(3), 135–140. doi:10.1177/070674379403900303. Streiner, D. L. (2002). “Breaking up is hard to do: The heartbreak of dichotomizing continuous data.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 47(3), 262–266. doi:10.1177/070674370204700307. Streiner, D. L. (2003). “Being inconsistent about consistency: When coefficient alpha does and doesn’t matter.” Journal of Personality Assessment, 80(3), 217–222. doi: 10.1207/S15327752JPA8003_01 Ronen, G. M., Streiner, D. L., & Rosenbaum, P. (2003). “Health-related quality of life in childhood epilepsy: Conceptualization and measurement.” Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 45(10), 701–708. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.2003.tb00871.x. Rapoport, M. J., McCullagh, S., Streiner, D. L., & Feinstein, A. (2003). “The clinical significance of major depression following mild traumatic brain injury.” Psychosomatics, 44(1), 31–37. doi:10.1176/appi.psy.44.1.31. Rosenbaum, P., Ronen, G. M., Streiner, D. L., & Boyle, M. (2001). “The health and well-being of children with epilepsy: A critical review.” Epilepsia, 42(3), 401–412. doi:10.1046/j.1528-1157.2001.13200.x.