Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Research Attitudes Questionnaire (RAQ), developed to predict individuals' willingness to participate, is often used in Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia research. OBJECTIVE: The present investigation aimed to examine the suitability of the RAQ across age groups and three different racialized identities, i.e., to see whether the RAQ showed measurement invariance. METHODS: We administered the RAQ to six groups of participants: 457 younger and 594 older African Americans, 207 younger and 339 older American Indian/Alaska Native, and 173 younger and 679 older non-Hispanic White adults. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the best-fitting model was one-factor. All six groups fit the model well, with Comparative Fit Indices > 0.95. A series of cross-sample invariance tests using increasing constraints on factor loadings, means, and residuals revealed evidence of configural invariance, metric invariance, and partial scalar invariance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the suitability of the RAQ for cross-cultural and/or age comparisons of willingness to engage in research in the groups and context studied.