Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale: Measurement Invariance over Gender

Abstract

Background: Research handling structural differences among groups presume that the measurement tool works similarly among the groups and the results of measurements provide similar psychometric properties. Therefore, the aim of the study is to provide evidence for measurement invariance of the construct validity Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (PHORS).
 Methods: The research sample consisted of a total of 1984 adults who exercise, including 864 women and 1120 men during 2021- 2022 in Antalya City, Turkey. The MI of the PHORS was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analyses, which test the invariance of the covariance structures within the scope of structural equation modelling. Invariance tests were gradually conducted for the implicit variables in the model, CFI (comparative fit index criteria) and AIC (Akaike information criterion) were inquired between structural invariance, where no restriction was applied on the analyses and the other invariance tests (metric invariance, scalar invariance and string invariance respectively) where more restraints are applied.
 Results: The study yielded evidence showing that the measurement model defined for the factor structure of the scale provided measurement invariance by gender. ∆CFI values were ≤0.010 in all subscales for metric and scalar invariance.
 Conclusion: The items of PHORS represented the same psychological structure, different groups responded to the items in the same way, the constant values in regression equations generated for the items in regression equations were equal/invariable between the groups.

Measurement invariance of the satisfaction with leisure satisfaction scale by gender, marital status, and age

“…The fact that researchers working on this subject will conduct studies on measurement invariance with other variables, such as leisure type, frequency of leisure participation, education, and income level, in the future may provide more comprehensive results for the construct validity of the measurement tool. However, the importance of measurement invariance studies in the field of leisure has been recognized by researchers and started to be reported in some measurement tools (Cho et al, 2020 ; Köse et al, 2021 ; Köse et al, 2022 ; Liu et al, 2014 ). It will be important for researchers to provide construct validity for other measurement tools in the field of leisure such as leisure crafting, involvement, attitude, boredom, serious leisure, and more for the validity of the research findings to be obtained from intergroup comparisons.…”