On testing factorial invariance: A reply to J.C.F. de Winter

Since its publication, the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) has been used for comparing subgroups of respondents on the constructs formed through factor analyzing the questionnaire items. However, not enough attention has been paid to ascertaining that the instrument actually measures the same constructs in the same way in all respondent groups. I recently published an article (Mattsson, 2012) that aimed to do this for the Finnish 28-item version of the DBQ using the stage-wise factorial invariance approach in the Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) context. de Winter (2013) commented on the publication, arguing that the results were artifacts due to measurement error that too many factors were extracted and that too strict criteria for invariance were applied. In this contribution, I reply to each criticism and suggest methodological approaches for ensuring the measurement invariance of self-report instruments such as the DBQ.