Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale: Measurement Invariance over Gender

BACKGROUND: Research handling structural differences among groups presume that the measurement tool works similarly among the groups and the results of measurements provide similar psychometric properties. Therefore, the aim of the study is to provide evidence for measurement invariance of the construct validity Perceived Health Outcomes of Recreation Scale (PHORS). METHODS: The research sample consisted of a total of 1984 adults who exercise, including 864 women and 1120 men during 2021–2022 in Antalya City, Turkey. The MI of the PHORS was tested by multigroup confirmatory factor analyses, which test the invariance of the covariance structures within the scope of structural equation modelling. Invariance tests were gradually conducted for the implicit variables in the model, CFI (comparative fit index criteria) and AIC (Akaike information criterion) were inquired between structural invariance, where no restriction was applied on the analyses and the other invariance tests (metric invariance, scalar invariance and string invariance respectively) where more restraints are applied. RESULTS: The study yielded evidence showing that the measurement model defined for the factor structure of the scale provided measurement invariance by gender. ΔCFI values were ≤0.010 in all subscales for metric and scalar invariance. CONCLUSION: The items of PHORS represented the same psychological structure, different groups responded to the items in the same way, the constant values in regression equations generated for the items in regression equations were equal/invariable between the groups.