Inspecting Measurement Invariance of MCI-R across Countries, Languages & Gender

Objective: Recent research demonstrated the need to add and re-assess the domains of the original Multicultural Ideology Scale given the political and demographic changes countries have undergone regarding multiculturalism. Across samples from Germany (N = 382) and Luxembourg (N = 148) but also within a UK sample (N = 300), a four-factor solution demonstrated the best fit to the data consisting of Cultural Maintenance, Equity/Inclusion, Social Interaction, and Consequences of Diversity, resulting in the revised Multicultural Ideology Scale (MCI-r). We currently do not know whether there exists actual construct invariance across all three countries, between the German and English versions of the scale, as well as gender (male vs. female). Yet ensuring measurement invariance across such groups is vital to gain valid insights across groups on multiculturalism in today’s societies. Thus, this presentation will provide insights on the measurement invariance of the MCI-r with data from the existing Germany, Luxembourg, and British data sets.
Methods: We conducted multigroup CFA, inspecting configural, metric and scalar invariance of the MCI-r across all three countries, the German and English versions of the scale as well as gender (male vs. female).
Results: The multigroup CFA findings indicate that configural and metric invariance were established across different language versions and country samples, after dropping one item that of the Equity/Inclusion subscale which deviated in meaning across the English and German version. Thus, we can assume that the factor loadings and the factor structure were equivalent. Configural, metric as well as scalar invariance were established across gender. Conclusion: Our findings mostly support the 4-factor structure of the MCI-r across three European countries, two language and two gender groups. At least for these sociocultural contexts, our findings provide assurance for future research on multiculturalism using this scale to produce valid insights.