Confirmatory factor analysis of the scale of nationalistic syndrome (sns-1)

Abstract

The aim of this research was to find out whether national affective attachment, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, threat perception posed by some ethnic minority groups, and national siege mentality are correlated to such a degree that on the latent level of higher order they form a homogeneous and internally coherent attitudinal construct of nationalistic syndrome. The research was carried out on a random sample of students at the University of Zagreb (N=368). In order to establish dimensionality and construct validity of the Scale of nationalistic syndrome consisting of 15 items (SNS-1), exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed. The EFA yielded three factors labeled a three-factor Anti-Semitism and xenophobia, Pperception of threat to national security, and Nnational affective attachement and self-sacrifice. CFA that did completely meet the established criteria for goodness-of-fit indices. However, the first-order-factor model of nationalistic syndrome should not immediately be discarded because the comparative fit indices were on the borderline level of acceptability. A second-order-factor model of nationalistic syndrome had all the acceptable goodnes-of-fit indices and and acceptable range for standard error (SRMR= .06; RMSEA EA = .09; GFI= .88; AGFI= .84, CFI= .95; NFI= .95). The theoretical model of nationalistic syndrome as an internally coherent system of ethnic exclusionism, threat perception, and strong national affective identification or attachment is confirmed. A high reliability of the scale SNS-1 (alfa= .89) proved it to be an economic and useful tool for assessing nationalistic syndrome in sociological and political science. High reliability of factorially extracted subscales of SNS-1 indicated that they can be used as specific measures of nationalistic syndrome.