Measurement invariance of the Occupational Depression Inventory: a study of 12,589 participants across 14 countries

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) reflects a novel approach to job-related distress anchored in depression research. To date, the extent to which the ODI exhibits measurement invariance across countries, languages, and demographics is unclear. Measurement invariance refers to whether a measure has the same structure, or meaning, across groups of interest. Measurement invariance is thus crucial for between-group comparisons and study replicability. This study estimated the measurement invariance of the ODI across 14 countries – Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA – and 10 languages as well as across sexes and age groups (pooled N = 12,589). We found evidence for complete measurement invariance (configural, weak, strong, and strict) across countries, languages, sexes, and age groups. Looking into the invariance of structural parameters, we found latent variance-covariance invariance to hold across countries, languages, and sexes and to be equivocal across age groups. Expectedly, the levels of occupational depression, as indexed by latent means, varied within the four categories. Our results indicate that the ODI behaves similarly across countries, languages, sexes, and age groups. Our findings support the use of the ODI with respondents having different cultural backgrounds and individual characteristics.