The Behavioural Inhibition System and Behavioural Approach System (BIS/BAS) Scales: Measurement and structural invariance across adults and adolescents

Confirmatory factor analytic procedures were used to examine the factor structure of Carver and White’s BIS/BAS Scales, and also its invariance across adults and adolescents. This measure, developed originally for adult use, has four scales: one for the Behavioural Inhibition System, and three for the Behavioural Approach System. To accomplish the aims, 631 adults and 300 adolescents completed the measure. The findings provided good support for the 4-factor structure, and for between-group invariance for the measurement (configural and metric) and structural (factor variances and covariances) models. These results mean that data obtained on the BIS/BAS Scales from early adolescents are directly comparable to scores from adults.