Róbert BALÁZSI1, Imre PÉNTEK2, Jenő VARGHA3, Krisztina SZABÓ4
imre.pentek@ubbcluj.ro
1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Babeș-
Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
2 Department of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,
Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
3 Departmentul de Psihologie Aplicată, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences,
Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
4 Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology and
Educational Sciences, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) was developed as a self-report instrument meant to measure experiential avoidance (EA), the central construct of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Although it is generally accepted that there are no systematic gender differences on AQII scores, some studies revealed higher scores of EA in women. The seemingly contradictory results leave open the question of whether the observed differences should be regarded as a genuine construct level difference between the two populations, or rather as a methodological artifact due to measurement non-invariance of AAQ-II. Our study aims to address the measurement invariance across gender groups of the Hungarian version of the AAQ-II. N=342 participants (37.75% male, and 62.25% female) completed the 7- item AAQ-II. Measurement invariance was assessed through multi-group CFA, using IBM AMOS ML estimation. Differences between the nested models were assessed through Δχ² complemented by changes of CFI (ΔCFI). Our results sustained the unidimensional structure of AAQ-II, and it’s construct validity. Partial measurement invariance of the AAQ-II and statistically significant latent mean differences across gender was also found, women showing higher levels of EA. These results were discussed from the perspective of cultural differences in the socialization of emotions.
Keywords: acceptance and commitment therapy, psychological flexibility, measurement invariance, latent mean differences, confirmatory factor analysis
Published online: 2019/03/01
Published print: 2019/03/01
