TY - JOUR
T1 - Measurement invariance in the social sciences
T2 - Historical development, methodological challenges, state of the art, and future perspectives
AU - Leitgöb, Heinz
AU - Seddig, Daniel
AU - Asparouhov, Tihomir
AU - Behr, Dorothée
AU - Davidov, Eldad
AU - De Roover, Kim
AU - Jak, Suzanne
AU - Meitinger, Katharina
AU - Menold, Natalja
AU - Muthén, Bengt
AU - Rudnev, Maksim
AU - Schmidt, Peter
AU - van de Schoot, Rens
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) , project number VI.Vidi.201.009, awarded to Suzanne Jak.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - This review summarizes the current state of the art of statistical and (survey) methodological research on measurement (non)invariance, which is considered a core challenge for the comparative social sciences. After outlining the historical roots, conceptual details, and standard procedures for measurement invariance testing, the paper focuses in particular on the statistical developments that have been achieved in the last 10 years. These include Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, the alignment method, measurement invariance testing within the multilevel modeling framework, mixture multigroup factor analysis, the measurement invariance explorer, and the response shift-true change decomposition approach. Furthermore, the contribution of survey methodological research to the construction of invariant measurement instruments is explicitly addressed and highlighted, including the issues of design decisions, pretesting, scale adoption, and translation. The paper ends with an outlook on future research perspectives.
AB - This review summarizes the current state of the art of statistical and (survey) methodological research on measurement (non)invariance, which is considered a core challenge for the comparative social sciences. After outlining the historical roots, conceptual details, and standard procedures for measurement invariance testing, the paper focuses in particular on the statistical developments that have been achieved in the last 10 years. These include Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, the alignment method, measurement invariance testing within the multilevel modeling framework, mixture multigroup factor analysis, the measurement invariance explorer, and the response shift-true change decomposition approach. Furthermore, the contribution of survey methodological research to the construction of invariant measurement instruments is explicitly addressed and highlighted, including the issues of design decisions, pretesting, scale adoption, and translation. The paper ends with an outlook on future research perspectives.
KW - Comparative research
KW - Item bias
KW - Measurement invariance
KW - Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis
KW - Noninvariance detection
KW - Scale construction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140981140&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102805
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102805
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85140981140
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 110
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
M1 - 102805
ER -