Analyses of measurement equivalence across gender in the Mentoring Functions Questionnaire (MFQ-9)

The purpose of this study is to examine the measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) of the 9-item Mentoring Functions Questionnaire (MFQ-9) across gender. Although ME/I is a prerequisite for examining cross-group differences, this assumption is rarely examined in mentoring research, particularly for comparing gender differences in mentoring functions protégés receive. Following Vandenberg and Lance’s (2000) suggestion, a series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFAs) were conducted to investigate ME/I of the MFQ-9 across male (N = 201) and female (N = 312) protégés. The results supported full configural invariance, full metric invariance, full scalar invariance, partial uniqueness invariance and partial factor variance–covariance matrix invariance across gender. Implications and application of the study findings are discussed.