Cross-Cultural Validation of the Bem Sex- Role Inventory on Bahraini and American Samples of College Students

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the factorial invariance of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) across samples of university students from Bahrain and the United States. To achieve this goal, the Arabic version of the BSRI was administered to 376 Bahraini and 380 American university students in class time. Previous crosscultural research found evidence of a two- factor structure of the BSRI in American samples. Using confirmatory factor analysis, however, we found strong evidence for the three-factor structure of the BSRI in Arab and American samples. Subsequent multi-group structural equation modeling indicated the factorial invariance of this structure across the two cultural groups. Based on these findings, future cross-cultural validation studies to investigate the configural invariance of the BSRI across different categories of respondents and to construct equivalent sex role inventories in Bahrain and USA as measures of personality are warranted.