Measurement invariance of discipline in different cultural contexts

• Main Authors: Huang, Li, Malone, Patrick S, Lansford, Jennifer E, Deater-Deckard, Kirby, Di Giunta, Laura, Bombi, Anna Silvia, Bornstein, Marc H, Chang, Lei, Dodge, Kenneth A, Oburu, Paul, Pastorelli, Concetta, Skinner, Ann T, Sorbring, Emma, Tapanya, Sombat, Tirado, Liliana Maria Uribe, Zelli, Arnaldo, Alampay, Liane Peña, Al-Hassan, Suha M, Bacchini, Dario
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2012
• Subjects: discipline; measurement invariance; cross-cultural research; Multicultural Psychology; Psychology; Quantitative Psychology
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/psychology-faculty-pubs/169; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19424620.2011.655997
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

The measurement invariance of mother-reported use of 18 discipline strategies was examined in samples from 13 different ethnic/cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Participants included approximately 100–120 mothers and their children aged seven to 10 years from each group. The results of exploratory factor analyses and multi-group categorical confirmatory factor analyses (MCCFA) indicated that a seven-factor solution was feasible across the cultural groups, as shown by marginally sufficient evidence for configural and metric invariance for the mother-reported frequency on the discipline interview. This study makes a contribution on measurement invariance to the parenting literature, and establishes the mother-report aspect of the discipline interview as an instrument for use in further cross-cultural research on discipline.