Abstract
This study examined the multidimensional structure and measurement invariance of a school engagement instrument using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), bifactor CFA (BCFA), and bifactor ESEM (BESEM). Participants consisted of 1731 students in Grades 9 - 11 from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development in the United States. The use of the CFA, ESEM, BCFA, and BESEM models was expected to provide more insight into the cross-loading and hierarchical structures of school engagement. We found empirical evidence to support the (a) tripartite factor structure of school engagement, (b) existence of cross-loadings and hierarchical structures, (c) measurement invariance across gender (male vs female) and race (European American vs African American), and (d) expected latent means differences by gender.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 20-33 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of School Psychology |
| Volume | 89 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported in part by a grant to Richard M. Lerner, Tufts University, from the National 4-H Council. This work was supported by the Ewha Womans University Research Grant of 2020.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Society for the Study of School Psychology
Keywords
- Bifactor models
- Exploratory structural equation modeling
- Measurement invariance
- Multidimensionality
- School engagement
- United States