Adaptation and Shortening of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale for the Ukrainian Context: Evidence from a Bias-Corrected Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Longitudinal Data

Abstract

The Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale remains a cornerstone in the study of authoritarian attitudes, yet its adaptation and validation outside Western contexts is limited. This study develops a Ukrainian adaptation of the RWA scale and evaluates its psychometric properties using longitudinal data (N=99). Two bias-correction techniques– acquiescent response style (ARS) and common method bias (CMB) correction– were validated, employed, and compared. While response bias appeared negligible at the aggregate level, its distorting effect on the factor structure was substantial, leading previous studies to misinterpret RWA’s dimensional composition. Bias detection through split-half correlation density analysis confirmed systematic method effects, while bias-corrected data revealed a markedly different factor structure, free from confounding artifacts. Findings indicate that applying bias-correction techniques is essential when analyzing RWA’s factor structure. Two shortened versions of the scale– a unidimensional and a three-dimensional– were developed for the Ukrainian context, both demonstrating strong reliability and longitudinal measurement invariance.

Keywords

• right-wing authoritarianism scale (rwa)
• ukraine
• bias correction
• common method bias (cmb)
• acquiescent response style (ars)
• longitudinal measurement invariance