Growth mixture models (GMMs; B. O. Muthen & Muthen, 2000; B. O. Muthen & Shedden, 1999) are a combination of latent curve models (LCMs) and finite mixture models to examine the existence of latent classes that follow distinct developmental patterns. GMMs are often fit with linear, latent basis, multiphase, or polynomial change models…

In the face of multicollinearity, researchers face challenges interpreting canonical correlation analysis (CCA) results. Although standardized function and structure coefficients provide insight into the canonical variates produced, they fall short when researchers want to fully report canonical effects. This article revisits the interpretation of…

This is an application of contemporary multilevel regression modeling to the prediction of academic performances of 1st-year college students. At a first level of analysis, the data come from N greater than 16,000 students who were college freshman in 1994-1995 and who were also participants in high-level college athletics. At a second level of…

The process-component approach has become quite popular for examining many psychological concepts. A typical example is the model with internal restrictions on item difficulty (MIRID) described by Butter (1994) and Butter, De Boeck, and Verhelst (1998). This study proposes a hierarchical generalized random-situation random-weight MIRID. The…

The gateway drug model is a popular conceptualization of a progression most substance users are hypothesized to follow as they try different legal and illegal drugs. Most forms of the gateway hypothesis are that "softer" drugs lead to "harder," illicit drugs. However, the gateway hypothesis has been notably difficult to…

Most treatments of indirect effects and mediation in the statistical methods literature and the corresponding methods used by behavioral scientists have assumed linear relationships between variables in the causal system. Here we describe and extend a method first introduced by Stolzenberg (1980) for estimating indirect effects in models of…

A multidimensional unfolding technique that is not prone to degenerate solutions and is based on multidimensional scaling of a complete data matrix is proposed: distance information about the unfolding data and about the distances both among judges and among objects is included in the complete matrix. The latter information is derived from the…

Horn's parallel analysis (PA) is the method of consensus in the literature on empirical methods for deciding how many components/factors to retain. Different authors have proposed various implementations of PA. Horn's seminal 1965 article, a 1996 article by Thompson and Daniel, and a 2004 article by Hayton, Allen, and Scarpello all make assertions…

The nonlinear random coefficient model has become increasingly popular as a method for describing individual differences in longitudinal research. Although promising, the nonlinear model it is not utilized as often as it might be because software options are still somewhat limited. In this article we show that a specialized version of the model…

The present study compares the performance of phi coefficients and tetrachorics along two dimensions of factor recovery in binary data. These dimensions are (1) accuracy of nontrivial factor identifications; and (2) factor structure recovery given a priori knowledge of the correct number of factors to rotate. (Author/LMO)

The impact of misspecification on the estimation, testing, and improvement of structural equation models was assessed via a population study in which a prototypical latent variable model was misspecified. Results provide insights into the maximum likelihood estimator versus a limited two-stage least squares estimator in LISREL. (TJH)

Since computer programs have been available for estimating and testing linear causal models, these models have been used increasingly in the behavioral sciences. This paper discusses the problem that very different causal structures may fit the same set of data equally well. (Author/LMO)

Covariance structure modeling by LISREL was used in an analysis of relations between intellectual ability, as measured by the Finnish version of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), and achievement in reading, writing, foreign language, and mathematics in longitudinal data on 234 Finnish school children. The validity of the ITPA…