Measurement Invariance of the Career Futures Inventory–Revised Across General and Client Samples

Abstract

Establishing measurement invariance has been emphasized as an important scale validation procedure for group comparisons. The 28-item Career Futures Inventory–Revised (CFI-R) is a widely used measure of career adaptability that has demonstrated initial validity with various samples. The purpose of the present study is to further examine the validity of the CFI-R by testing measurement invariance between a general university student sample and a client sample. First, a five-factor confirmatory factor analysis model was tested with each group. Then, measurement invariance tests were conducted through subsequently examining configural invariance, metric invariance, and scalar invariance. Test of invariance was achieved until partial scalar invariance, suggesting that the CFI-R is similarly applicable to both clinical and nonclinical samples. In addition, the comparisons of latent means between two groups revealed that clients showed significantly lower latent means than general students for four factors: Career Agency, Occupational Awareness, Support, and Work–Life Balance.