A Measurement Invariance Assessment of Morality between China and the United Kingdom

• In Event: Understanding Crime Through the Lens of Situational Action Theory: Empirical Findings and Methodological Advancements

Abstract

Morality plays a critical role in crime involvement. However, few published scales have examined the measurement invariance of different moral codes. The current study explored the measurement invariance of morality among school-attending youths in the UK (N = 707) and China (N = 588), aged between 14 and 16. The morality scale used in this research consists of 16 items, and we tested Configural, Metric, and Scalar invariance across the two countries.

Employing Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the results indicated that the latent variable of morality shares the same structure in the UK and China, as well as the same factor loading configuration for 14 out of the total of 16 items, but with different item thresholds. In other words, the morality scale meets Configural invariance when additional residual correlations are included. Moreover, the morality scale satisfies Metric invariance if the loadings 2 of the 16 items are freely estimated in each group.

Consequently, cross-cultural comparison is feasible with partial invariance of morality between the two countries. Moreover, this result was observed consistently at ages 14 and 16, and the items with non-invariant thresholds also remained consistent over the three years. The findings suggest that the 16-item morality scale can be used in cross-country comparisons to study the causation of crime involvement. However, the average morality score may have different implications in the UK and China.

If we divide the morality scale into three sub-scales: minor morality, major morality, and substance use, we find that British young people and Chinese young people report similar results regarding major morality items. Their differences mainly lie in the areas of minor morality and substance use.

Further analysis of crime and morality based on the partial invariance model indicates that morality is significantly associated with crime involvement in both countries, albeit at different levels.

Author

• Xiaoya Xun, Shenzhen University