The present work focuses on the performance of two types of shrinkage priors--the horseshoe prior and the recently developed regularized horseshoe prior--in the context of inducing sparsity in path analysis and growth curve models. Prior research has shown that these horseshoe priors induce sparsity by at least as much as the "gold…

Meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) refers to fitting structural equation models (SEMs) (such as path models or factor models) to meta-analytic data. Currently, fitting MASEMs may be challenging for researchers that are not accustomed to working with R software and packages. Therefore, we developed webMASEM; a web application for…

Structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis using composite-scores are distinct classes of methods for modeling the relationship of theoretical constructs. The two classes of methods are integrated in the partial-least-squares approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), which systematically generates weighted composites and uses…

Researchers using factor analysis tend to dismiss the significant ill fit of factor models by presuming that if their factor model is close-to-fitting, it is probably close to being properly causally specified. Close fit may indeed result from a model being close to properly causally specified, but close-fitting factor models can also be seriously…

The relationship between saturated path-analysis models and their fit to data is revisited. It is demonstrated that a saturated model need not fit perfectly or even well a given data set when fit to the raw data is examined, a criterion currently frequently overlooked by researchers utilizing path analysis modeling techniques. The potential of…

What predicts adults' entrepreneurial intentions? Utilizing a cross-sectional sample of 496 German scientists, we investigated a path model for the effects of entrepreneurial personality (Big Five profile), control beliefs, and recalled early entrepreneurial competence in adolescence (early inventions, leadership, commercial activities) on two…

Objective: In this study, we examined the influence of pre-disaster perceived social support on post-disaster psychological distress among survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Method: Participants (N = 386) were low-income mothers between 18 and 34 years of age at baseline (M = 26.4, SD = 4.43). The majority (84.8%) was African American; 10.4%…

The study addressed two limitations of previous research on factors related to teachers' integration of technology in their teaching. It attempted to test a structural equation model (SEM) of the relationships among a set of variables influencing preservice teachers' use of technology specifically to support student-centered learning. A review of…

Studies that combine moderation and mediation are prevalent in basic and applied psychology research. Typically, these studies are framed in terms of moderated mediation or mediated moderation, both of which involve similar analytical approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches have important shortcomings that conceal the nature of the moderated…

Background: Students' academic self-concepts are known to be domain specific. Researchers have also identified two related components of self-concept:cognitive (how competent students feel about a subject domain) and affective (their interest in the subject). This paper examines whether both components are domain specific. Research has also shown…

The primary questions addressed in this paper are the following: what are the factors that affect students' adoption of an e-learning system and what are the relationships among these factors? This paper investigates and identifies some of the major factors affecting students' adoption of an e-learning system in a university in Jordan. E-learning…

Structural equation modelling is becoming increasingly popular in education. This article examines and compares a number of alternative assumptions governing nondirected paths in structural equation models without latent variables vis-a-vis a data set on lung ventilation. Some problems with the conventional procedures in path analysis are pointed…

Criteria for factor identification in factor analysis according to J. Algina (1980) are summarized, and a procedure is presented to determine rotationally underidentified factors by adding restrictors and to carry out the rotation for old and new restrictions and in latent path analysis. Two illustrations are presented. (SLD)

Research questions that test the interaction between either categorical variables or multiplicative expressions are commonly found in multiple regression and analysis of variance applications. In contract, research questions posing an interaction between observed variables in a path analytic model are not commonly found in the literature. This is…

D. B. Rubin's model for causal inference in experiments and observational studies is enlarged to analyze the problem of "causes causing causes" and is compared to path analysis and recursive structural equations models. A special quasiexperimental design, the encouragement design, is used to give concreteness to the discussion by…