Measurement invariance: The case of measuring romantic attachment in Greek and Cypriot adolescents

Abstract

The experiences in close relationships revised (ECR-R) is widely used to assess romantic attachment dimensions. Investigating cultural limitations in its applicability is imperative. This study aims to examine the instrument's: (1) factor structure in two large and normative samples of Greek (N = 1706, M age = 16.16; SD = 2.16; 49.7% male) and Cypriot (N = 1279; M age = 15.54; SD = 0.65; 44.9% male) adolescents; (2) measurement invariance between these groups, accounting for potential gender and age effects. Results supported the two-factor structure and indicated partial invariance of the constructs between Greek and Cypriot adolescents. Findings support limitations in the use of instruments adapted for Greece in Cyprus.

Assessing Online Flow Across Cultures: A Two-Fold Measurement Invariance Study

“…Here in Study 2 , full invariance of the OFQ, at both the configural and the metric level was observed, indicating that there is consistency in the way that these two samples conceptualize the psychological construct of online Flow, as well as the way that all items associate to the latent construct. This aligns with literature suggesting consistency in the factor structure and the factor loadings related to the way that Greeks and Cypriots approach scales referring to psychological constructs, such as romantic attachment ( Stavropoulos et al, 2017b ). Interestingly though, these two Greek speaking populations, present differences considering the scalar invariance level, which reflects variations in the meaning of the same item scores ( Stavropoulos et al, 2018a ).…”

“…These indices were chosen because they are robust measures in the presence of complex models ( Kenny, 2014 ). As a result, and not surprisingly, these measures have been widely used in previous MI studies (e.g., Gomez and Suhaimi, 2015 ; Pontes et al, 2017 ; Stavropoulos et al, 2017b ).…”

“…Despite sharing similarities with Greece (i.e., language and religion), Cyprus was once an English colony and is currently a Commonwealth member, and thus, has been assumed to have been exposed to more individualistic tendencies ( Terkourafi, 2007 ). This greater orientation toward individualism for the Cypriots, compared to the traditionally higher collectivism of the Greeks has been stipulated to interfere with the MI of psychological scales applied in these two countries ( Stavropoulos et al, 2017b ). Thus, affecting the scoring of the items (i.e., scalar invariance – same reported score meaning different levels of severity).…”

“…Similarly, Greece has been defined as being more horizontally collectivistic than Cyprus (likely due to Cyprus’ exposure to the British Commonwealth; Stavropoulos et al, 2018a ). Such differences in cultural features have been shown to associate with online behaviors in general and gaming involvement patterns in particular ( Lee and Wohn, 2012 ; Xu-Priour et al, 2014 ; Hong, 2015 ) and to impact the psychometric equivalence of measures ( Stavropoulos et al, 2017b ). For instance, findings from a measurement invariance (MI) study of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale – Short Form 9 between the United States, the United Kingdom, and India revealed that despite cross-country consensus of a one-factor structure of the instrument, there were cross-country differences on the metric and scalar level of analyses ( Pontes et al, 2017 ).…”

Measurement invariance of maternal ratings of ADHD symptoms across clinic referred children’s with and without ADHD

“…[30] There is also evidence of high co-occurrence of ADHD in parents and children. [31,32] Thus, it could be speculated that compared to parents of children without ADHD, parents of ADHD children could be more knowledgeable about and experienced with ADHD, and consequently more prone/sensitive to "halo" effect responses, or a distorted estimation of ADHD symptoms in their off-springs. Expressed differently, "halo" effects could result in maternal ratings of the ADHD symptom that may differ from the actual trait level, confounded by their level of experience of the diagnosed behaviors.…”