Should different countries participating in PISA interpret socioeconomic background in the same way? A measurement invariance approach

Abstract

It has been claimed that there is a lack of theory-driven constructs and a lack of cross-country comparability in International Large-Scale Assessment (ILSA)’s socio-economic background scales. To address these issues, a new socio-economic background scale was created based on Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory, which distinguishes economic, cultural and social capital. Secondly, measurement invariance of this construct was tested across countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). After dividing the countries which participated in PISA 2015 into three groups, i.e., Latin American, European, and Asian, a Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was carried out in order to examine the measurement invariance of this new socio-economic scale. The results of this study revealed that this questionnaire, which measures the socio-economic background, was not found to be utterly invariant in the analysis involving all countries. However, when analysing more homogenous groups, measurement invariance was verified at the metric level, except for the group of Latin American countries. Further, implications for policymakers and recommendations for future studies are discussed.