Measuring Undergraduates' Global Perspective Development: Examining the Construct and Cross-Cultural Validity of the Global Perspective Inventory across Ethnoracial Groups

• Main Author: Davidson, Lisa M
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2018
• Subjects: Higher education
• ISBN: 0438576195; 9780438576193

This study examined the construct and cross-cultural validity of the Global Perspective Inventory’s (GPI’s) 32 global perspective development items, which measure six related dimensions of development spanning cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains. The study’s sample consisted of 7,092 undergraduates who completed the GPI General Form between 2015-2017. The GPI’s hypothesized hierarchical factor structure was used for all confirmatory factor analyses and multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses for this study. The data from the GPI were ordinal in nature, presenting important considerations. This study makes several contributions to survey validation efforts. First, it provides a nuanced definition of the concept of validity and presents the processes of cross-cultural and construct validation in accessible ways. The study carefully outlines analytical procedures for measurement invariance testing using hierarchical factor structures and ordinal data. Second, examining the GPI’s hierarchical factor structure as well as convergent and discriminant validity of its six developmental scales revealed important evidence. The measurement invariance results suggest that the GPI’s developmental constructs are theorized, understood, and measured equivalently across African American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian, Hispanic, and white undergraduates. The construct validity evidence illuminated specific opportunities for both scale- and item-level refinement opportunities. This study provides a roadmap for informed refinement and subsequent validation of the GPI and discusses future inquiry related to this instrument and measurement issues in cross-cultural survey research more generally.