When are item intercept differences substantively relevant in measurement invariance testing?

Abstract

Invariance of measurement instruments is a necessary condition for making valid comparisons across cultural groups. Applied researchers are becoming increasingly aware of the issue of measurement invariance, and the work of Peter Schmidt has contributed greatly in the growth of this awareness. Nowadays, multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) is widely recognized as a versatile and powerful statistical tool to assess whether measurement scales are cross-culturally invariant (Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998, Vandenberg and Lance, 2000).