Measurement Model and Invariance Testing of Scales Measuring Egalitarian Values in ICCS 2009

Abstract

Based on the conceptualization of democratic principles in the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2009, particularly attitudes concerning equal rights for disadvantaged groups, such as immigrants, ethnic groups and women, this chapter evaluates the extent to which the scales measuring attitudes toward gender equality, equal rights for all ethnic/racial groups and equal rights for immigrants are invariant, and to what extent they can be compared across the countries participating in the study. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis is used to estimate a measurement model of the egalitarian attitudes and its measurement equivalence across the 38 countries (n = 140,000 8th grade students) that participated in ICCS 2009. The results indicate that the original scales are non-invariant. Nevertheless, with some modifications, the proposed conceptual model was found to be invariant across countries. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and empirical implications of the model.