In this ITEMS module, we frame the topic of scale reliability within a "confirmatory factor analysis" and "structural equation modeling" (SEM) context and address some of the limitations of Cronbach's a. This modeling approach has two major advantages: (1) it allows researchers to make explicit the relation between their items…

Throughout much of the social and behavioral sciences, latent growth modeling (latent curve analysis) has become an important tool for understanding individuals' longitudinal change. Although nonlinear variations of latent growth models appear in the methodological and applied literature, a notable exclusion is the treatment of growth following…

A simulation study compared three methods of estimating parameters within structural equation models (SEM) with polytomous variables. These methods appear in three SEM computer software packages: (1) LISREL (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1996) with PRELIS (Joreskog and Sorbom); (2) EQS (Bentler, 1995); and (3) the new Mplus (Muthen and Muthen, 1998). The…

Though common structural equation modeling (SEM) methods are predicated upon the assumption of multivariate normality, applied researchers often find themselves with data clearly violating this assumption and without sufficient sample size to use distribution-free estimation methods. Fortunately, promising alternatives are being integrated into…