A multi-group structural equation modelling investigation of the measurement invariance of the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) across gender groups in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The choice of career path could create a stressful situation for many individuals.Researchers seem to agree that if a person is able to find fit between what they would liketo do and what a job (work environment) involves then a person is likely to perform theirchosen occupation well. Interest assessment is a method that assists in making personaland organisational career related decisions. The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS,Campbell, Hyne & Nilsen, 1992) is a well-known interest assessment instrument that canbe used for such decisions. Even though interest assessment can assist, theseinstruments have been criticised for being gender biased and typically forcing people intostereotypical gendered type occupations. Bias is indicated as nuisance factors thatthreaten the validity of cross-group (cultural) comparisons (Van de Vijver & Leung, 1997).These nuisance factors could be due to construct bias, method bias and/or item bias.Therefore, due to the importance of the decisions made, it would seem essential that theinformation provided by test results apply equally across different reference groups – thiswould imply equivalent measurement. Equivalence is achieved at three levels: Configural,metric and scalar (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000; Vandenberg, 2002). Full measurementinvariance (achieved when scalar invariance is found) implies the ability to compareobserved scores directly. By making use of confirmatory factor analytic techniquessuggested by Vandenberg and Lance (2000), increasing constraints of equivalence wereproposed for the CISS measurement model. While adequate model fit was found for theCISS Basic scales, the sample size did not afford independent gender sampleconfirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and consequent measurement invariance tests to beconducted on the Basic scales. The CISS Orientation scales were then subjected to CFAon the combined gender sample and then were subjected to independent CFAs on theseparate gender samples. Unfortunately poor model fit was found at this global level ofmeasurement in the CISS. This prevented the researcher from completing the necessarymeasurement invariance tests on the Orientation scales for the CISS. The implications ofthe results are discussed, limitations are indicated and areas for further research arehighlighted.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University