Assessing the Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI) Victimization Scale Across Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Adolescents in the United States

Objective: Teen dating violence (TDV) is studied widely; however, less is known about these forms of victimization among adolescent sexual minority (SM) populations. The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI) victimization scale is a widely used multidimensional measure for assessing TDV whose factor structure has recently been shown to be invariant across sex, race/ethnicity, and time. While this work has confirmed that the measurement of the CADRI functions similarly across sex, race/ethnicity, and time, it is not known whether the factor structure is invariant across sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer; SM) and heterosexual adolescents. This study extends previous work by assessing the measurement invariance of the CADRI for SM high school students across three waves. Method: The present study uses a longitudinal multigroup confirmatory factor analysis using diagonally weighted least squares to assess factorial invariance of the CADRI across SM adolescents using three waves of data. Results: Factorial measurement invariance across groups (SM and heterosexual youth) and across time was found for the CADRI. Conclusion: Findings confirm the factorial invariance of a popular TDV measure being suitable for use among sexual minority youth, wherein rates of victimization are generally higher.