Establishing the Measurement Invariance of the Very Short Form of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised for Mothers Who Vary on Race and Poverty Status

We examined the measurement invariance of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised–Very Short Form (IBQR–VSF; Putnam, Helbig, Gartstein, Rothbart, & Leerkes, 2014) in a sample of 470 racially (185 White, 285 African American) and socioeconomically diverse mothers (158 below federal poverty threshold, 296 above federal poverty threshold) of infants. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, we demonstrated configural, full metric, and full scalar invariance demonstrating that the 3-factor structure (negative emotionality, positive affectivity/surgency, orienting/regulatory capacity), pattern of item loadings, and item means were comparable for White and African American mothers, and for poor and not poor mothers. In addition, we demonstrated full error invariance across racial groups and partial error variance invariance across poverty status, demonstrating that item reliability was comparable for White and African American mothers, and both those above and below the poverty line (with the exception of a subset of items). Thus, the IBQR–VSF appears appropriate for use in racially and socioeconomically diverse samples.