Multidimensional measuring instruments are often used in behavioral, social, educational, marketing, and biomedical research. For these scales, the paper discusses how to find the optimal score based on their components that is associated with the highest possible reliability. Within the framework of structural equation modeling, an approach to…

This article is concerned with the assumption of linear temporal development that is often advanced in structural equation modeling-based longitudinal research. The linearity hypothesis is implemented in particular in the popular intercept-and-slope model as well as in more general models containing it as a component, such as longitudinal…

This note demonstrates that measurement invariance does not guarantee meaningful and valid group comparisons in multiple-population settings. The article follows on a recent critical discussion by Robitzsch and Lüdtke, who argued that measurement invariance was not a pre-requisite for such comparisons. Within the framework of common factor…