Structural Equivalence

Abstract

It cannot be taken for granted that test scores obtained from two cultural groups can be meaningfully compared. The meaning of the scores may be partly or entirely different in the two cultures. If this is the case, measurement inequivalence or measurement bias is said to occur. There are several types of measurement equivalence, including structural equivalence. As noted by, the term structural equivalence is used in different ways in cross‐cultural psychology and psychometrics. Specifically, it may be helpful to distinguish three different concepts of structural equivalence: (a) structural (and functional) equivalence as an aspect of construct and/or measurement equivalence in the tradition of cross‐cultural psychology, (b) levels of measurement model invariance in the context of multi‐group structural equation model (SEM) analyses, and (c) levels of invariance related in the structural model part of SEM models.