Abstract
Externalizing psychopathology is shaped by environmental and contextual factors, particularly those tied to disadvantaged backgrounds. There is insufficient work examining how broader contextual variables affect measurement models of latent externalizing. The current research examined the degree to which indicators traditionally used to model externalizing are similarly indicative of the latent construct across racial and contextual factors (i.e., metric and scalar invariance), using data from two studies of system-involved adults (Study 1: Mage=36.5, 67% male; Study 2: Mage=32.1, 62% male). In both studies, metric invariance generally held but not scalar invariance as a function of race/ethnicity and community-level racialized contexts, particularly for drug use, antisocial behavior and criminal justice-related indicators. Results suggest that contextual factors influence not only externalizing level but affect the measurement of the construct itself.