Testing for factorial invariance of the Modified Leadership Scale for Sports: using a Japanese version

The objective of this study was to provide empirical evidence to support psychometric properties of a modified four-dimensional model of the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS). The study tested invariance of all parameters (i.e., factor loadings, error variances, and factor variances–covariances) in the four-dimensional measurement model between two groups of student-athletes. For testing multi-group invariance of the proposed scale, 335 middle school and 320 high school student-athletes in Japan participated in this study. The modified version of the LSS consists of 35 items representing training instruction, democratic behaviour, positive feedback, and social support. A chi-square difference test was employed for model comparisons. The results supported configural, metric, scalar and factor variance–covariance invariance in the modified LSS across the two student-athlete groups.