A Multi-Cultural Comparison of the Factor Structure of the MIDAS for Adults/College Students.

The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS) instrument was developed to measure eight constructs of intelligence. The 119-item MIDAS provides scores for 26 subscales in addition to the 8 major scales. Using the 26 subscales, a factor structure was developed on half of a U.S. sample of college students (n=834), while the second half was compared to six samples of college students and young adults from Canada (n=203), Chile (n=202), Korea (South Korea; n=200)), Singapore (n=284), Taiwan (n=203), and the United Kingdom (n=190). Multi-sample confirmatory factor analysis was used to investigate the fit of the imposed model as parameters were progressively relaxed. The seven groups were found to differ little even when the factor structure constraints were fully relaxed. A pairwise comparison between the U.S. sample and each of the remaining six groups found that the factor structure was common in the most relevant aspects for the Canadian and United Kingdom samples, but some differences were found for the remaining groups. The group showing the least in common with the U.S. factor structure was Korea. The overall results are supportive of multiple intelligences being viewed as abilities that are influenced by cultural content. (Contains 1 figure, 8 tables, and 20 references.) (Author/SLD)