IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intell/v113y2025ics0160289625000662.html

Lack of measurement invariance in mental health assessment across intelligence levels: Investigation into nonlinearity reveals a broader issue

Author

Listed:
  • Czerwiński, Stanisław K.
  • Konarski, Roman
  • Atroszko, Paweł A.

Abstract

The notion of individuals with extremely high intelligence experiencing specific psychological difficulties has been brought up many times by researchers, with no consensus being reached on this matter. Modeling the relationship between intelligence and mental health nonlinearly allows for revealing the possibility for extremely intelligent individuals to experience specific difficulties affecting their mental health while still having better mental health on average. Moreover, with gender roles ingrained in the social world, men and women are likely to have different experiences with how their social environments react to their high intelligence. This study used data from two cohort studies: the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79; n = 8474) and 1997 (NLSY97; n = 6472). Although, the results of polynomial and piecewise regression suggested that the relationship of intelligence with depression and distress is nonlinear, the results of local structural equation models showed the lack of measurement invariance of mental health measures across intelligence values for both men and women. The factor loadings for the measures decreased, as the intelligence values increased. As such, values of mental health are not comparable across different levels of intelligence. If this effect is also present on a larger number of psychometric instruments, the implications on psychological research could be substantial. The lack of measurement invariance of psychometric instruments across intelligence can compromise the results of studies, not only those testing for nonlinear relationships of intelligence, but also those testing for linear ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Czerwiński, Stanisław K. & Konarski, Roman & Atroszko, Paweł A., 2025. "Lack of measurement invariance in mental health assessment across intelligence levels: Investigation into nonlinearity reveals a broader issue," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:113:y:2025:i:c:s0160289625000662
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2025.101963
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000662
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.intell.2025.101963?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karpinski, Ruth I. & Kinase Kolb, Audrey M. & Tetreault, Nicole A. & Borowski, Thomas B., 2018. "High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 8-23.
    2. Joseph Henrich & Steve J. Heine & Ara Norenzayan, 2010. "The Weirdest People in the World?," RatSWD Working Papers 139, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    3. Thomas Niemand & Robert Mai, 2018. "Flexible cutoff values for fit indices in the evaluation of structural equation models," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 1148-1172, November.
    4. Blum, Diego & Holling, Heinz, 2017. "Spearman's law of diminishing returns. A meta-analysis," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 60-66.
    5. Bates, Timothy C. & Gignac, Gilles E., 2022. "Effort impacts IQ test scores in a minor way: A multi-study investigation with healthy adult volunteers," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    6. Carmit Segal, 2012. "Working When No One Is Watching: Motivation, Test Scores, and Economic Success," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(8), pages 1438-1457, August.
    7. Hatch, Stephani L. & Jones, Peter B. & Kuh, Diana & Hardy, Rebecca & Wadsworth, Michael E.J. & Richards, Marcus, 2007. "Childhood cognitive ability and adult mental health in the British 1946 birth cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 2285-2296, June.
    8. Gignac, Gilles E. & Darbyshire, Joey & Ooi, Michelle, 2018. "Some people are attracted sexually to intelligence: A psychometric evaluation of sapiosexuality," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 98-111.
    9. Gignac, Gilles E. & Callis, Zoe M.V., 2020. "The costs of being exceptionally intelligent: Compatibility and interpersonal skill concerns," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    10. Albert Satorra & Peter Bentler, 2010. "Ensuring Positiveness of the Scaled Difference Chi-square Test Statistic," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 75(2), pages 243-248, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joe Gladstone & Jenna Adriana Maeve Barrett, 2023. "Understanding the functional form of the relationship between childhood cognitive ability and adult financial well-being," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-34, June.
    2. Coyle, Thomas R., 2023. "Sex differences in tech tilt and academic tilt in adolescence: Processing speed mediates age-tilt relations," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. repec:osf:osfxxx:fqmdu_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sibilla Di Guida & Ido Erev & Davide Marchiori, 2014. "Cross Cultural Differences in Decisions from Experience: Evidence from Denmark, Israel and Taiwain," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2014-16, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Hind Dib‐slamani & Gilles Grolleau & Naoufel Mzoughi, 2021. "Is theft considered less severe when the victim is a foreign company?," Post-Print hal-03340844, HAL.
    6. Coyle, Thomas R., 2022. "Sex differences in spatial and mechanical tilt: Support for investment theories," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Shi, Yun & Cui, Xiangyu & Zhou, Xunyu, 2020. "Beta and Coskewness Pricing: Perspective from Probability Weighting," SocArXiv 5rqhv, Center for Open Science.
    9. Brady, David, 2023. "Poverty, not the poor," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(34), pages 1-17.
    10. Kyriaki Remoundou & Drichoutis Andreas & Phoebe Koundouri, 2010. "Warm glow in charitable auctions: Are the WEIRDos driving the results?," DEOS Working Papers 1028, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    11. Thomas Buser & Muriel Niederle & Hessel Oosterbeek, 2014. "Gender, Competitiveness, and Career Choices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1409-1447.
    12. Stephen L. Cheung & Agnieszka Tymula & Xueting Wang, 2022. "Present bias for monetary and dietary rewards," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(4), pages 1202-1233, September.
    13. Plante, Charles & Lassoued, Rim & Phillips, Peter W.B., 2017. "The Social Determinants of Cognitive Bias: The Effects of Low Capability on Decision Making in a Framing Experiment," SocArXiv u62cx, Center for Open Science.
    14. John A. List, 2024. "Optimally generate policy-based evidence before scaling," Nature, Nature, vol. 626(7999), pages 491-499, February.
    15. Nicolas Jacquemet & Adam Zylbersztejn, 2014. "What drives failure to maximize payoffs in the lab? A test of the inequality aversion hypothesis," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 18(4), pages 243-264, December.
    16. repec:osf:socarx:n49hv_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Cornoldi, Cesare & Giofrè, David & Toffalini, Enrico, 2023. "Cognitive characteristics of intellectually gifted children with a diagnosis of ADHD," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Csilla Horváth & Feray Adigüzel & Hester van Herk, 2013. "Cultural Aspects Of Compulsive Buying In Emerging And Developed Economies: A Cross Cultural Study In Compulsive Buying," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 4(2).
    19. Dai, Zhixin & Zheng, Jiwei & Zizzo, Daniel John, 2024. "Theories of reasoning and focal point play with a matched non-student sample," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Jenny C Su & Chi-Yue Chiu & Wei-Fang Lin & Shigehiro Oishi, 2016. "Social Monitoring Matters for Deterring Social Deviance in Stable but Not Mobile Socio-Ecological Contexts," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-13, November.
    21. repec:osf:osfxxx:nb7tg_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Goran Calic & Moren Lévesque & Anton Shevchenko, 2024. "On why women-owned businesses take more time to secure microloans," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 917-938, October.
    23. Sirola, Nina, 2023. "Going beyond the call of duty under conditions of economic threat: Integrating life history and temporal dilemma perspectives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intell:v:113:y:2025:i:c:s0160289625000662. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.