Sexism and gender violence in university students from Tabasco (Mexico) and Lleida (Catalonia): Measurement invariance and cross-cultural differences

The present article reports a cross-cultural correlational study based on two-groups of young undergraduate students from Mexico and Catalonia (Spain). The main purposes were: (a) to assess the measurement invariance of a sexism inventory in both groups; (b) to compare the group means in hostile and benevolent sexism, and (c) to assess the across-group equivalence in the relations between the sexism scores and measures of gender violence. The ultimate aim of the assessment was to explore the potential appropriateness of the programs used in Catalonia to prevent gender violence if they are used in the Mexican culture. A multiple-group structural model with latent variances was used for analyzing the data, an approach that seems to be a novelty in this type of study. The main results were: (a) the sexism measure showed strong invariance in both groups; (b) the group levels of sexism were substantially higher in Mexico, and (c) the violence-sexism relations were in the expected direction in both groups, but were weaker than expected. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.