Invariance of the MAST across religious groups

The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), a commonly used instrument of alcohol-related problems, was examined to determine whether it assessed the same constructs in individuals from religions with different proscriptions regarding the use of alcohol.

The MAST was completed by participants in the longitudinal Joint Child Health Project when they were approximately 23 years old. Subjects of this study (N= 747; 505 men) were 465 Hindus, 223 Catholics and 59 Muslims who reported drinking alcohol. Measurement invariance, the determination that the same constructs are being measured across groups, was tested by comparing factor invariance using multigroup structural equation modeling.

The Hindu and Catholic groups had similar factor structures to those found in previous Australian, Canadian and U.S. samples. Metric invariance was obtained for the Hindu and Catholic groups, but not for the Muslim group.

These findings suggest the measurement of MAST factors is invariant across a fairly broad segment of the population in which the MAST might be used. However, the lack of invariance in this sample of Muslims suggests that the MAST is not an appropriate instrument to use among all groups of drinkers. These findings highlight the importance of testing for invariance when using psychological measures to compare heterogeneous samples.