Testing for the Factorial Validity, Replication, and Invariance of a Measuring Instrument: A Paradigmatic Application Based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory

Abstract

The intent of this article is twofold: (a) to report substantive findings from a cross-validated study that tested for the factorial validity and invariance of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) across gender for elementary (males n = 742; females n = 801) and secondary (males n = 659; females n = 721) teachers, and (b) for purposes of helping readers who may be new to the structural modeling methodology, to provide an example of how these procedures may be applied in testing for the construct validity of a measuring instrument. Unique to this article is the use of multiple model-fitting criteria that address issues related to nonnormality of the data, complexity and replicability of the model, and error of approximation and sampling error in the estimation of fit; other "experimental" indices of fit are also included. Substantively, although results argue generally for the equivalency of the MBI across gender, calibration/validation groups, and teaching panels, they also suggest the need for a reexamination of content and retesting of construct validity related to six of the 22 items.