Longitudinal measurement invariance in urbanization index of Chinese communities across 2000 and 2015: a Bayesian approximate measurement invariance approach

Table 4 Results of approximate metric invariance model with prior variance of 0.01 for the differences in factor loadings of the Urbanicity Scale from 2000 to 2015

Item	λ		Deviations from the average λ						Δ
Item	Average	SD	2000	2004	2006	2009	2011	2015	Δ
Communication	0.89	0.05	−0.09*	0.06	0.01	0.04	0.11*	−0.14*	28.0%
Population density	1.02	0.07	−0.11*	− 0.02	− 0.04	0.02	0.00	0.16*	26.1%
Diversity	0.71	0.05	−0.02	0.06*	0.07*	− 0.03	0.04	−0.13*	27.7%
Economic activity	2.13	0.11	0.01	0.03	−0.03	0.04	−0.03	− 0.02	3.2%
Health structure	1.09	0.08	−0.01	0.06	0.06	−0.00	−0.06	− 0.05	11.1%
Housing	1.54	0.08	0.16*	0.12*	0.07	−0.01	− 0.11*	−0.24*	26.5%
Traditional market	1.65	0.13	−0.05	0.02	0.06	0.04	−0.01	−0.06	6.9%
Social services	0.92	0.07	−0.30*	0.09	0.04	0.03	0.08	0.07	42.7%
Transportation	0.96	0.08	0.04	−0.02	0.02	− 0.01	−0.00	− 0.03	6.8%
Education	1.10	0.07	−0.08*	−0.08*	0.06*	0.02	0.19*	−0.11*	26.6%
Modern market	1.84	0.11	−0.02	0.03	0.02	−0.02	0.03	−0.03	3.6%
Sanitation	2.03	0.11	0.12*	−0.00	0.05	0.04	0.03	−0.24*	17.5%

* p < 0.05; λ = factor loading; SD standard deviation; Δ = maximum proportional deviation from the average loading across the 2000–2015 waves. The top two significant deviations from the average loading are highlighted in bold

ISSN: 1471-2458