Structure and Measurement Invariance of Ethnic Identity for Native American College Students

Abstract

With a specific focus on the Native American population, the current study investigated the structure of ethnic identity, measured by the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, using a bifactor model across Native American (n = 307), Asian (n = 348), and White (n = 549) undergraduate students. We further investigated measurement invariance across ethnic groups that shared the same factor structure. The results indicated that ethnic identity can be modeled by a bifactor structure with a general factor and two group factors, affective pride and exploration, for Native American and Asian respondents but not White respondents. In addition, measurement invariance tests supported partial weak invariance between the Native American group and the Asian group. The current findings suggest that comparisons of ethnic identity scores across ethnic groups should be treated with caution.