Measurement Invariance of the Gifted Rating Scales-School Form Across Five Cultural Groups

Abstract

This study examined measurement invariance of the Gifted Rating Scales-School Form (GRS-S) across the United States, Puerto Rico, China, South Korea, and Turkey, using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 1,817 students were rated by 287 teachers using either translated versions of GRS-S or the original English GRS-S. Results indicate a similar factor structure for the GRS-S across the five locations; six factors with each of the 72 items equivalently loaded to the same latent variable across groups. The metric invariance test and the factor variance and covariance invariance tests reveal that the patterns of factor loadings and the factor variances and covariances are invariant across the five groups. Moreover, the scalar invariance test indicates that item means are equivalent across the groups. These results suggest that the GRS-S has intercultural utility and can be similarly interpreted. Implications and limitations of the present research for gifted identification are discussed.