Measurement invariance tests of the Impression Management sub-scale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding

The Impression Management (IM) subscale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Paulhus, 1988) has been used as a proxy for common method variance in anonymous settings and as a cause of faking on personality testing in confidential settings. This study uses confirmatory factor analysis to conduct measurement invariance/equivalence tests (also known as multiple group analysis) on the IM subscale in a quasi-experiment in anonymous and confidential data collection settings. Using Brown’s (2006) bottom-up approach to Cheung and Rensvold’s (1999) model testing steps and Cheung and Rensvold’s (2002) statistical tests, the IM sub-scale was determined to have equal form, equal factor loadings, equal indicator error variances, equal factor variance, and an equal factor covariance in both 1-factor and 2-factor models in both data collection settings. Mean scale scores were significantly higher in the confidential group than in the anonymous group. These results suggest that using the IM sub-scale as a cause of faking and as a proxy for common method variance (CMV) is likely to be acceptable because the psychometric properties of the instrument are invariant across testing conditions.