A Russian-language Questionnaire to Measure Right-wing Authoritarianism: Validity and Invariance

Abstract

Right-wing authoritarianism as a system of beliefs about society attracts a lot of attention among psychologists. Questionnaires represent one of the ways to measure this phenomenon. However, their main disadvantage is their cross-cultural and temporal specificity. This article examines the structure, invariance, and validity of the Russian-language questionnaire for measuring the right-wing authoritarianism. The study included three stages. During the first stage (N = 900), the one-factor and three-factor structures of the long (13 items) and short (9 items) versions of the Russian-language questionnaire for measuring right-wing authoritarianism were analyzed. During the second (N = 555) and third (N = 994) stages, the structure, invariance and convergent validity of the short three-factor version were analyzed. Specifically, the three-factor version encompasses three subscales: "conventionalism", "authoritarian submission", and "authoritarian aggression". Our results showed that the three-factor structure of the questionnaire showed acceptable fit to the empirical data. In addition, it demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender and age groups. Finally, the subscales of the questionnaire were positively associated with the need for cognitive closure, social dominance orientation, a positive attitude towards the Russian political system, and the approval of the restriction of actions aimed at changing it. These results indicate that the questionnaire is a valid tool for measuring right-wing authoritarianism.