Informed Theory and Measurement Equivalence in Child Development Research

Abstract The role of theory informed by the nature of the population being studied is often overlooked in considering the equivalence of measures across developmental changes, across groups that differ in developmental status, or across groups that differ in participant characteristics. The purpose of this article is to discuss the “best practice” approaches for evaluating measurement equivalence based on such informed theory. This article discusses the role of informed theory in the consideration of various types of measurement equivalence in developmental research, as well as equivalence of translated items and measures.