Human Values and Trust in Institutions across Countries: A Multilevel Test of Schwartz's Hypothesis of Structural Equivalence

Authors

  • Davide Morselli
  • Dario Spini
  • Thierry Devos

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2012.v6i1.5090

Keywords:

values, trust in institutions, multilevel structural equation modelling, World Values Survey

Abstract

The goal of this article was to show how structural equation modelling associated to multilevel regressions represents a powerful tool to examine innovative cross-cultural research questions. The relationship between values and trust in institutions was investigated in four cross-cultural datasets: three were students and teacher samples; the last was a general sample from the 2005 World Values Survey (WVS). The hypothesis of equivalence of the structure of relations between values and trust in institutions (sinusoid curve hypothesis) was tested with a series of multilevel multiple indicators and multiple causes models with random slopes. Structural equivalence was confirmed for student samples, but not for the general sample. The between-country variance of the relationship between values and trust in the general sample was partially explained by country level differences in socio-economic wealth and quality of governance.

Downloads

Published

2012-04-25

How to Cite

Morselli, D., Spini, D., & Devos, T. (2012). Human Values and Trust in Institutions across Countries: A Multilevel Test of Schwartz’s Hypothesis of Structural Equivalence. Survey Research Methods, 6(1), 49–60. https://doi.org/10.18148/srm/2012.v6i1.5090