Testing Measurement Invariance of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) in American and Arab University Students

Affect describes any feelings, emotions, or moods that a person experiences and is generally divided into two broad dimensions—positive affect and negative affect. The most widely used measure of affect, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), has recently been translated to Arabic (see Appendix), yet the psychometric equivalence of this adapted measure is not fully understood. Using a series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses, the current study examined measurement invariance of the English and adapted Arabic versions of the PANAS among 979 American and 1470 Arab university students. Although the two-factor structure of the 20-item PANAS was observed in both groups (configural variance), results did not support full invariance of factor loadings (metric invariance). A partial metric invariance model, however, revealed invariant loadings for all positive affect items and all but four negative affect items; dissimilar factor loadings emerged between groups for irritable, nervous, scared, and jittery. Evidence did not support scalar invariance of the 16 metric-invariant items, with only ten items demonstrating equivalent intercepts across groups. Finally, tests for strict invariance indicated nine of the ten scalar-invariant items had equivalent residual variances across groups.

All told, results suggest that the PANAS is partially invariant in American and Arab groups.