Book chapter
Testing for invariance of latent classes: Group-as-covariate approach
This chapter focuses on one specific way of conducting analysis of measurement invariance of latent classes. We describe group-as-covariate approach, focus on unordered latent class models, explicate levels of invariance and procedures required to test them making strong links with factor analysis, and supplement it with a detailed example. In addition to the application provided by Siegers (this volume), we describe and show how to test for metric invariance of classifications. The chapter is accompnied by an empirical illustration with basic value latent classes in West&North vs. East Europe.
In book

Contents foreword Research on values Chapter 1: Introduction and explanation of the term 'values' Chapter 2: The theory of human values according to Shalom H. Schwartz and its relevance for the study of the development of values in childhood and adolescence Chapter 3: Values and Behaviors The research of value development Chapter 4: How to research values in childhood? A question of diagnostics Chapter 5: How do values evolve? Research designs and results from selected subject areas Chapter 6: Values in the family - conveying values through parenting goals and values Chapter 7: Values development and change of values in children - wishes for research Educational approaches to value formation Chapter 8: Storytelling - Goals and content of a school value building project Chapter 9: Experiencing values - an example of conveying values through experiential project work in the fields of theater and outdoor
The present article is devoted to a comparison of today’s values of Russians with those of people living in the other countries of Europe. Many publications have broadly discussed the question of similarities and differences in the cultural and psychological characteristics of Russians and other Europeans, and these discussions represent part of a broader polemic concerning the paths of Russia’s development. New opportunities to make well-founded comparisons between the populations of Russia and other European countries have emerged because of our country’s participation in the European Social Survey (ESS), a largescale international project in which all of the participants have to work in accordance with strict methodological requirements.1 Russia joined this international project in the third round. Surveys in this round have been carried out in twenty-five European countries; they were launched in September 2006 and completed at the beginning of 2007. In Russia the survey took place in September 2006–January 2007, with 2,437 respondents taking part.
Three dimensions of subordinate-supervisor relations (affective attachment, deference to supervisor, and personal-life inclusion) that had been found by Chen et al. (2009) to be characteristic of a guanxi relationship between subordinates and their supervisors in China were surveyed in Taiwan, Singapore and six non-Chinese cultural contexts. The affective attachment and deference subscales demonstrated full metric invariance whereas the personal-life inclusion subscale was found to have partial metric invariance across all eight samples. Structural equation modelling revealed that the affective attachment dimension had a cross-nationally invariant positive relationship to affective organizational commitment and a negative relationship to turnover intention. The deference to the supervisor dimension had invariant positive relationships with both affective and normative organizational commitment. The personal-life inclusion dimension was unrelated to all outcomes. These results indicate the relevance of aspects of guanxi to superior-subordinate relations in non-Chinese cultures. Studies of indigenous concepts can contribute to a broader understanding of organizational behavior.
Basic Human Values of the Russian teachers are compared with those of their colleagues from the 27 European countries, using the Schwartz Value Survey data collected in the 1990s. It was found that the average Russian teacher is extremely high in Security and extremely low in Hedonism. In addition the Russian teachers often leave their colleagues behind in the scores on Self-Enhancement (Achievement and Power) and Conformity-Tradition but often hang back in the commitment to Self-Direction and Self-Transcendence (the latter combines the values of Benevolence and Universalism). The coincidence between relative value scores of the Russian teachers and the conclusions drawn from cross-country comparison of the national samples as well as value similarity between Russia and some other countries of similar level of economic and political development are discussed. The paper illustrates the disparity between research results and common ideological stereotypes.