Recent Methods for the Study of Measurement Invariance With Many Groups

Bengt Muthén and Tihomir Asparouhov

Sociological Methods & Research, 2018, vol. 47, issue 4, 637-664

Abstract: This article reviews and compares recently proposed factor analytic and item response theory approaches to the study of invariance across groups. Two methods are described and contrasted. The alignment method considers the groups as a fixed mode of variation, while the random-intercept, random-loading two-level method considers the groups as a random mode of variation. Both maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses are applied. A survey of close to 50,000 subjects in 26 countries is used as an illustration. In addition, the two methods are studied by Monte Carlo simulations. A list of considerations for choosing between the two methods is presented.

Keywords: factor analysis; item response theory; random intercepts; random slopes; configural invariance; scalar invariance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:somere:v:47:y:2018:i:4:p:637-664

DOI: 10.1177/0049124117701488

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