Supplemental Material for A Bayesian Region of Measurement Equivalence (ROME) Approach for Establishing Measurement Invariance

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Oberski

Latent variable models can only be compared across groups when these groups exhibit measurement equivalence or “invariance,” since otherwise substantive differences may be confounded with measurement differences. This article suggests examining directly whether measurement differences present could confound substantive analyses, by examining the expected parameter change (EPC)-interest. The EPC-interest approximates the change in parameters of interest that can be expected when freeing cross-group invariance restrictions. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the EPC-interest approximates these changes well. Three empirical applications show that the EPC-interest can help avoid two undesirable situations: first, it can prevent unnecessarily concluding that groups are incomparable, and second, it alerts the user when comparisons of interest may still be invalidated even when the invariance model appears to fit the data. R code and data for the examples discussed in this article are provided in the electronic appendix (http://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/21816).


2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Ambwani ◽  
Cortney S. Warren ◽  
David H. Gleaves ◽  
Antonio Cepeda-Benito ◽  
Mari Carmen Fernandez

To understand the relevance of the fear of fatness construct across culture and gender, we translated the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale (GFFS) and examined its psychometric properties in English and Spanish languages in a sample of Euro-American male (n = 111) and female (n = 100), and Spanish male (n = 114) and female (n = 544) college students in the United States and Spain. Confirmatory and exploratory analyses tested the measurement equivalence of the instrument across samples by gender and culture. Eight of the 10 items appeared to demonstrate measurement invariance. Mean comparisons on the eight-item version suggested that there was a gender by country interaction, with Euro-American women scoring substantially higher than the three other groups. Overall, these results highlight the need for additional examinations of cross-cultural instrument invariance and explorations of the fear of fatness construct.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget V. Dever ◽  
Samuel Y. Kim

Abstract. There is consistent evidence of the importance of academic self-efficacy beliefs within educational research, as they are linked to critical academic outcomes. Ethnic and gender differences in academic self-efficacy have been found in nations outside of the United States, suggesting differences in how individual students perceive their academic abilities. However, if researchers are interested in making mean-level comparisons of academic self-efficacy across diverse subpopulations of students, it is imperative to assess the measurement equivalence of the scale used across these subgroups prior to drawing any conclusions based on score inferences. The current study assessed the measurement invariance of the academic self-efficacy scale of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales (PALS; Midgley et al., 2000 ) across gender and race among 4,148 high school students in the Southeastern US. The results indicated partial measurement invariance across African American females, African American males, Caucasian females, and Caucasian males, providing initial support for the same factor structure across groups. However, caution should be taken in considering any mean-level differences, as support for only weak invariance was found.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Tingting Wang ◽  
Ping Zeng ◽  
Minghao Zhao ◽  
Guifang Zhang ◽  
...  

Background: Medical students are affected by high levels of general anxiety disorder. However, few studies have specifically focused on the applicability of universal anxiety screening tools in this sample. This study was aimed to evaluate the psychometric property of the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) among Chinese medical university students.Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,021 medical postgraduates from six polyclinic hospitals. Internal consistency and convergent validity of the GAD-7 were evaluated. Factor analyses were used to test the construct validity of the scale. An item response theory (IRT) framework was used to estimate the parameters of each item. Multi-group confirmatory analyses and differential item function analyses were used to evaluate the measurement equivalence of the GAD-7 across age, gender, educational status, and residence.Results: Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.93 and the intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.71 to 0.87. The GAD-7 summed score was significantly correlated with measures of depression symptoms, perceived stress, sleep disorders, and life satisfaction. Parallel analysis and confirmatory factor analysis supported the one-factor structure of the GAD-7. Seven items showed appropriate discrimination and difficulty parameters. The GAD-7 showed good measurement equivalence across demographic characteristics. The total test information of the scale was 22.85, but the test information within the range of mild symptoms was relatively low.Conclusions: The GAD-7 has good reliability, validity, and measurement invariance among Chinese medical postgraduate students, but its measurement precision for mild anxiety symptoms is insufficient.


Author(s):  
Tanesia R. Beverly

Researchers tend to evaluate psychological instruments in terms of reliability (internal consistency) and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis). In many instances, these instruments are used for cross-cultural comparisons such as gender and race—however, many of these studies do not provide evidence of measurement invariance or measurement equivalence. Measurement equivalence is a statistical property of an instrument that indicates that participants interpret and respond to the items similarly or that the same latent construct is being measured across observed groups of people. Partial measurement equivalence is a necessary condition for comparing latent mean differences across cultures. This area of construct validity is often neglected in the literature; therefore, this chapter aims to introduce the concept of measurement invariance. Additionally, it highlights the necessity of testing for measurement invariance when making cross-cultural comparisons on organizational leadership instruments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 777-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Waldeyer ◽  
Jens Fleischer ◽  
Joachim Wirth ◽  
Detlev Leutner

Abstract. There is substantial evidence that students in higher education who have sophisticated resource-management skills are more successful in their studies. Nevertheless, research shows that students are often not adequately prepared to use resource-management strategies effectively. It is thus crucial to screen and identify students who are at risk of poor resource management (and consequently, reduced academic achievement) to provide them with appropriate support. For this purpose, we extend the validation of a situational-judgment-based instrument called Resource-Management Inventory (ReMI), which assesses resource-management competency (including knowledge of resource-management strategies and the self-reported ability to use this knowledge in learning situations). We evaluated the ReMI regarding factor structure, measurement invariance, and its impact on academic achievement in different study domains in a sample of German first-year students ( N = 380). The results confirm the five-factor structure that has been found in a previous study and indicate strong measurement invariance. Furthermore, taking cognitive covariates into account, the results confirm that the ReMI can predict students’ grades incrementally. Finally, a multi-group analysis shows that the findings can be generalized across different study domains. Overall, we provide evidence for a valid and efficient instrument for the assessment of resource-management competency in higher education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 771-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Piskernik ◽  
Barbara Supper ◽  
Lieselotte Ahnert

Abstract. While parenting research continues to compare similarities and differences in mothers’ and fathers’ behaviors based on mean values on the respective dimensions, measurement invariance as a prerequisite for these comparisons has seldom been assured. The present study thus subjected the well-known Parenting Stress Index (PSI), widely used in models of family functioning, to a rigorous measurement invariance analysis based on ( N = 214) Austrian couples with children younger than 3 years of age. We evaluated configural, metric, scalar, and uniqueness invariance on item and subscale levels, and tested for structural invariance of means and variances of the PSI parent and child domain by second-order confirmatory factor analyses. As a result, only measurement differences on the scalar levels affected the factor scores, though negligibly. On the structural levels, no differences were found on the PSI child domain across parents, but on the PSI parent domain, mothers reported more stress.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gino Casale ◽  
Robert J. Volpe ◽  
Brian Daniels ◽  
Thomas Hennemann ◽  
Amy M. Briesch ◽  
...  

Abstract. The current study examines the item and scalar equivalence of an abbreviated school-based universal screener that was cross-culturally translated and adapted from English into German. The instrument was designed to assess student behavior problems that impact classroom learning. Participants were 1,346 K-6 grade students from the US (n = 390, Mage = 9.23, 38.5% female) and Germany (n = 956, Mage = 8.04, 40.1% female). Measurement invariance was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) across students from the US and Germany. Results support full scalar invariance between students from the US and Germany (df = 266, χ2 = 790.141, Δχ2 = 6.9, p < .001, CFI = 0.976, ΔCFI = 0.000, RMSEA = 0.052, ΔRMSEA = −0.003) indicating that the factor structure, the factor loadings, and the item thresholds are comparable across samples. This finding implies that a full cross-cultural comparison including latent factor means and structural coefficients between the US and the German version of the abbreviated screener is possible. Therefore, the tool can be used in German schools as well as for cross-cultural research purposes between the US and Germany.


2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg-Tobias Kuhn ◽  
Heinz Holling

The present study explores the factorial structure and the degree of measurement invariance of 12 divergent thinking tests. In a large sample of German students (N = 1328), a three-factor model representing verbal, figural, and numerical divergent thinking was supported. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses revealed that partial strong measurement invariance was tenable across gender and age groups as well as school forms. Latent mean comparisons resulted in significantly higher divergent thinking skills for females and students in schools with higher mean IQ. Older students exhibited higher latent means on the verbal and figural factor, but not on the numerical factor. These results suggest that a domain-specific model of divergent thinking may be assumed, although further research is needed to elucidate the sources that negatively affect measurement invariance.


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