The Impact of Controlling for Extreme Responding on Measurement Equivalence in Cross-Cultural Research

Prior research has shown that extreme response style can seriously bias responses to survey questions and that this response style may differ across culturally diverse groups. Consequently, cross-cultural differences in extreme responding may yield incomparable responses when not controlled for. To examine how extreme responding affects the cross-cultural comparability of survey responses, we propose and apply a multiple-group latent class approach where groups are compared on basis of the factor loadings, intercepts, and factor means in a Latent Class Factor Model. In this approach a latent factor measuring the response style is explicitly included as an explanation for group differences found in the data. Findings from two empirical applications that examine the cross-cultural comparability of measurements show that group differences in responding import inequivalence in measurements among groups. Controlling for the response style yields more equivalent measurements. This finding emphasizes the importa...