Short Form of the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-L9) in the US, Germany, and Russia: Psychometric Properties and Cross-Cultural Measurement Invariance Test

Validation of a 9-item version of the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-L9) and testing its cross-national measurement invariance and latent mean differences in representative samples from the United States of America (US), Germany, and Russia. The psychometric properties of the SOC-L9 were tested with representative samples aged 18-100 years from the US (N = 2,972), Germany (N = 2,005), and Russia (N = 2,726). Both a model with a general factor and method effect of items with negative wording and a unidimensional model were tested for structure validity. Measurement equivalence and latent mean comparisons were conducted across the samples. The SOC-L9 showed good reliability and validity in all countries. Rather than the unidimensional model, the model with additional method effect showed excellent fit across countries. Cross-national measurement invariance testing found partial strong measurement invariance across the three samples. The latent means of the SOC-L9 in the US sample were higher than those in German and Russian samples. The SOC-L9 has proved to be economic, valid, reliable, and cross-nationally applicable in the US, Germany, and Russia. Meaningful differences across countries were found, suggesting the importance of taking cultural background into account in SOC-related research.