The MIMIC models also yielded many significant direct effects of gender, age, and race/ethnicity on AUD symptom criteria (see table 2). This indicates that not all of the effects of background variables are fully mediated by the latent variable (i.e., AUD severity) and that there is therefore evidence of partial measurement non-invariance. Interpretations of direct effects should be viewed in conjunction with the structural estimates of the factor. For example, in the total sample model, there were three significant direct effects related to gender (continued to drink despite psychological and physical problems [−0.14], hazardous use [0.15], and legal problems [0.24]). The negative direct effect for the criterion, psychological and physical problems among males, implies that for respondents with the same value on this factor (i.e., equally severe with respect to AUD), respondents who are male have a lower probability of reporting this criterion. Factor values being the same, male drinkers have a higher probability for reporting hazardous use and legal problems than female drinkers.
