Group comparisons in structural equation models: Testing measurement invariance
When fitting almost any model, we may be interested in investigating whether parameters differ across groups such as time periods, age groups, gender, or school attended. In other words, we may wish to perform tests of moderation when the moderator variable is categorical. For regression models, this can be as simple as including group indicators in the model and interacting them with other predictors.
We naturally have hypotheses regarding differences in parameters across groups when fitting structural equation models as well. When these models involve latent variables and the corresponding observed measurements, we can test whether those measurements are invariant across groups. Evaluation of measurement invariance typically involves a series of tests for equality of measurement coefficients (factor loadings), equality of intercepts, and equality of error variances across groups.
In this post, I demonstrate how to use the sem command’s group() and ginvariant() options as well as the postestimation command estat ginvariant to easily perform tests of measurement invariance. Read more…