Examining measurement invariance across gender in the BFAS-40

This study examined the measurement invariance across gender of a recently developed short form of the Big Five Aspects Scale (BFAS-40; Gallagher et al., 2023) in a large sample ( N = 1468). A modern item response theory (IRT) method was used to identify anchor items, and measurement invariance (MI) was examined using multi-group exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). ESEM MI analyses demonstrated strict invariance across genders for the BFAS-40. Moreover, findings for practical significance of measurement invariance testing, indexed by d MACS (Nye & Drasgow, 2011), indicated trivial differences between genders across items, with the strongest (though still trivial to small) effects observed for the Withdrawal, Compassion, and Politeness Aspects. Implications as well as limitations and future directions are discussed. Overall, this provides further evidence that the BFAS-40 is a valid and fair tool for measuring the Big Five Aspects. • Tested measurement invariance of Big Five Aspects for the first time • Used IRT DIF to identify anchor items for multigroup invariance testing • BFAS-40 showed strict measurement invariance across genders. • Gender nonequivalence effects were trivial to small across items and scales. • BFAS-40 appears to be a valid, fair, and efficient tool for assessing Big Five Aspects.