Assessing Optimism of Early Adolescents from Four Racial/Ethnic Groups: Measurement Invariance Testing of the SSP Success Orientation Scale

Background: A positive future-oriented attitude is associated with numerous positive developmental outcomes for adolescents, including school engagement, academic performance, and avoidance of risky health behaviors (Snyder et al., 1997; Van Ryzin, 2011; Worrell & Hale, 2001). An optimistic future orientation may be especially important for students who encounter structural barriers to success, such as barriers related to socioeconomic status or racial/ethnic minority group membership (Meece & Kurtz-Costes, 2001). Despite the importance of this construct to school social work, few measures of future orientation/optimism have been validated for use with diverse populations. The purpose of the current study is to examine the quality of data collected using an existing measure of optimism and determine whether the scale operates equivalently with early adolescents from four different racial/ethnic groups. Measurement invariance across groups permits greater confidence in the measure’s appropriateness for valid assessments, cross-group comparisons, and tests of substantive hypotheses.

Methods: As part of the North Carolina Rural Adaptation Project, the 10-item School Success Profile (SSP) Success Orientation scale was administered with 2,063 students in grades 6-8 from 28 public schools in two rural, economically disadvantaged counties. The sample was racially/ethnically diverse: 33% Native American, 30% White, 27% African American, 10% Hispanic/Latino. A multiple group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in Mplus 7 to test for measurement invariance. Weighted least squares means and variances (WLSMV) estimation was used because the data are both non-normal and ordinal. Clustering of students within schools was modeled. Invariance testing followed current recommended procedures for estimation with ordinal variables, including modeling of thresholds (Byrne, 2012; Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012; Sass, 2011).

Results: Scale items displayed configural invariance, indicating that the basic factorial structure was the same across the four racial/ethnic groups. Metric invariance was established, indicating factor loadings could be considered invariant across groups. Although full scalar invariance was not supported (a small percentage of thresholds were not fully invariant across the four groups), the establishment of partial measurement invariance permitted cross-group comparisons of latent means. Levels of optimism differed significantly across racial/ethnic groups. African American students reported statistically significantly higher levels of optimism than all other groups; Native American students reported significantly higher levels than White students. Further post-hoc analysis (Sass, 2011) indicated that the non-invariance among thresholds did not affect conclusions about latent mean differences.  

Conclusions/Implications: As a potential protective factor, optimism is a logical target for school-based prevention and intervention efforts. Evaluating such programs and detecting real change in targeted constructs depends, in part, on using measures that perform well psychometrically. This study contributes to intervention and evaluation efforts by validating a scale that can be used to assess levels of optimism and to make cross-group comparisons among racially/ethnically diverse early adolescents. Many studies of optimism do not employ diverse samples (Carver et al., 2010); as such, this study adds to our understanding of optimism and potential differences across racial/ethnic groups. This study also contributes to the measurement literature by demonstrating the most current and rigorous methods for establishing measurement invariance with non-normal ordinal variables.