Measurement Invariance of the Short Home Attachment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Study

Sofya Nartova-Bochaver; Sofia Reznichenko; Vasily Bardadymov; Milana Khachaturova; Victoria Yerofeyeva; Narine Khachatryan; Iryna Kryazh; Shanmukh Kamble; Zulkarnain Zulkarnain

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.834421

Measurement Invariance of the Short Home Attachment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Study

Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 11:13:834421. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.834421. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sofya Nartova-Bochaver¹, Sofia Reznichenko¹, Vasily Bardadymov², Milana Khachaturova¹, Victoria Yerofeyeva¹, Narine Khachatryan³, Iryna Kryazh⁴, Shanmukh Kamble⁵, Zulkarnain Zulkarnain⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, HSE University, Moscow, Russia.
² "Scholae Mundi Russia" Charity Foundation, Moscow, Russia.
³ Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia.
⁴ Department of Applied Psychology, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Kharkiv, Ukraine.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, India.
⁶ Faculty of Psychology, University of Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia.

Abstract

The home environment is a particularly significant part of life that is supposed to satisfy inhabitants' needs, form their identity, and contribute to psychological wellbeing. The construct of home attachment is especially relevant for students as a most mobile social group. This study is devoted to the validation of the Short Home Attachment Scale (SHAS) in a student sample from five countries (Armenia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Ukraine). A total of 1,349 (17-26 years; M_age = 19.82, SD_age = 2.14; 78% females) university students participated in the study and filled in the 14 items of HAS. In order to avoid redundant items with high error covariances damaging the model, a new scale-the SHAS was developed by eliminating seven items. The shortened scale has satisfactory structure validity in terms of model fit in all countries except Indonesia; internal reliability values were acceptable in all countries. Measurement invariance across countries was tested with Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MG CFA) and Alignment Analysis. MG CFA confirmed both configurational and metric invariance. The invariance of item factor loadings, as well as item intercepts, was also confirmed by the Alignment Analysis. The mean scores varied across cultures, with the highest in India and the lowest in Russia. The final version of SHAS is a valid, reliable tool that may be recommended for use in cross-cultural research. However, the SHAS factor structure robustness in the Indonesian population should be investigated thoroughly.

Keywords: cross-cultural research; home attachment; place attachment; questionnaire; reliability; validation.