Measurement invariance: Review of practice and implications

A review of efforts to assess the invariance of measurement instruments across different respondent groups using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is provided for the years since the Vandenberg and Lance [Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3, 4–69.] review. Investigators are more frequently reporting tests of scalar invariance and tests for differences in latent factor means and partial invariance. Efforts have been made to assess, the impact of the choice of a referent indicator in multi-group studies, the appropriateness of forming partials as indicators of a latent construct, the degree of convergence of item response theory and CFA analyses of measurement differences across groups, and the implications of findings of invariance. In this context, a demonstration of the impact of partial invariance on estimated group differences in reliability and means is provided and discussed.