A nurse researcher developed a new scale to measure cigarette dependence and calculates the correlation between scale scores and a gold standard, salivary cotinine levels. what type of validity is being assessed?

This is a question from florida national university nursing program the options of question were

A. Construct validity B. Face validity C. Content validity D. Criterion validity

By looking at options as well s question we know salivary cotinine levels is not tested for validating outer appearances like face or construct and gold standard is not a standard for content validity so eliminating other options we are left with opton

D. Criterion validity which is the correct answer