The argument is that if you
fit a trend line from 1975 to the start of 1997 (or the middle of 1997, the
exact time not making much difference) then an extension of that trendline to the present shows that the
data since then has not deviated in any significant way from that trendline.
The
exact structure of the nation attachment construct might be better elucidated from the design of a specific nation attachment scale, rather than the use of an adapted scale, which has been found to optimally
fit data into three - factor models [10].