The Stability Of The Value Typology Of Europeans: Testing Invariance With Confirmatory Latent Class Analysis

NRU Higher School of Economics , 2014. No. 51.

Rudnev M., Magun V., Schmidt P.

Unlike variable-centered measures, validity and stability of typologies have been rarely  studied. Magun, Rudnev and Schmidt [in review] developed a value typology of the  European population using data from the 4 th round of the European Social Survey. The  value classes showed heuristic power in the comparison of different parts of the European  population, countries in particular, enabling more differentiated interpretations in a  parsimonious way. The current paper tests the stability of this typology by extending the  study to three time points – consecutive surveys in 2008, 2010 and 2012. Conceptually,  this test coincides with measurement invariance testing. We reviewed the levels of  typology measurement invariance. Then, the invariance of the value typology of  Europeans was tested across three rounds of the ESS and it was found to hold configural  and partial invariance. The reliability of the value classes was supported by the stability  of country class probabilities across the time points as well. The correlations of the  country shares of the value classes with the economic development of countries are also  invariant at the three time points. The results imply that the value classification of  Europeans is not ad hoc, but reflects the natural structure of European societies, and can  be used in future studies

Keywords: basic human values, value heterogeneity, latent class analysis, анализ латентных классов, ценностная гетерогенность, базовые жизненные ценности, measurement invariance, инвариантность измерения, European population

Publication based on the results of: ­­­Social identity and values: cross-country comparisons (2014)