Cross-ethnic equivalence of socialization measures in European American and African American youth

We examined the cross-ethnic equivalency of socialization measures developed primarily with European American families. Four aspects of measurement equivalence were assessed: conceptual, operational, scalar, and functional. Evidence of between - and within - group measurement equivalency of socialization measures was derived from youth reports of 500 European American and 134 African American individuals ages 10 to 18, using confirmatory factor analyses and item response theory analyses. Findings indicate that most individual indicators of socialization, with the exception of paternal psychological control and parent-youth conflict, demonstrated cross-ethnic equivalence. The findings also suggest that lax control is better represented as a multi-dimensional construct (leniency and laxness).