Measurement equivalence of the food related lifestyle instrument (FRL) in Ireland and Great Britain

The food-related lifestyle instrument (FRL) is tested for cross-cultural validity. Representative consumer samples from the UK 1998 (N=1000) and Ireland 2001 (N=1024) are compared using multisample confirmatory factor analysis with structured means. The results suggest that, in all five FRL domains, the measurement characteristics of the survey instrument were completely invariant across the two cultures. No indication was found of any bias. Regarding future applications of the FRL, it can be concluded that the instrument has identical measurement characteristics when applied to consumer populations from Ireland and the UK. Direct comparisons of raw scores and sample statistics between the two populations are valid without further correction.