Frontiers in Psychology (Aug 2021)

Latent Congruence Model to Investigate Similarity and Accuracy in Family Members' Perception: The Challenge of Cross-National and Cross-Informant Measurement (Non)Invariance

  • Semira Tagliabue,
  • Michela Zambelli,
  • Angela Sorgente,
  • Sabrina Sommer,
  • Christian Hoellger,
  • Heike M. Buhl,
  • Margherita Lanz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.672383
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12

Abstract

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Several methods are available to answer questions regarding similarity and accuracy, each of which has specific properties and limitations. This study focuses on the Latent Congruence Model (LCM; Cheung, 2009), because of its capacity to deal with cross-informant measurement invariance issues. Until now, no cross-national applications of LCM are present in the literature, perhaps because of the difficulty to deal with both cross-national and cross-informant measurement issues implied by those models. This study presents a step-by-step procedure to apply LCM to dyadic cross-national research designs controlling for both cross-national and cross-informant measurement invariance. An illustrative example on parent–child support exchanges in Italy and Germany is provided. Findings help to show the different possible scenarios of partial invariance, and a discussion related to how to deal with those scenarios is provided. Future perspectives in the study of parent–child similarity and accuracy in cross-national research will be discussed.

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