Editorial: Measurement Invariance

Frontiers in Psychology

Rens Van De Schoot¹ 

关键词: measurement invariance;    confirmatory factor analysis;    Bayesian models;    questionnaires;    approximate measurement invariance;    partial measurement invariance;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01064

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Multi-item surveys are frequently used to study scores on latent factors, like human values, attitudes, and behavior. Such studies often include a comparison, between specific groups of individuals or residents of different countries, either at one or multiple points in time (i.e., a cross-sectional or a longitudinal comparison or both). If latent factor means are to be meaningfully compared, the measurement structures of the latent factor and their survey items should be stable, that is “invariant.” As proposed by Mellenbergh (1989), “measurement invariance” (MI) requires that the association between the items (or test scores) and the latent factors (or latent traits) of individuals should not depend on group membership or measurement occasion (i.e., time). In other words, if item scores are (approximately) multivariate normally distributed, conditional on the latent factor scores, the expected values, the covariances between items, and the unexplained variance unrelated to the latent factors should be equal across groups.

【 授权许可】

CC BY