In qualitative comparative analysis, as with all methods, there is a question about how many cases are needed to make an analysis robust. In deciding on the number of cases, a key consideration is the number of conditions to be analyzed. I suggest that adding cases is preferable to dropping conditions if there are too many conditions relative to…

Fetters et al.'s (2013) mixed methods integration framework uses construction metaphors: building, connecting, merging, and embedding. In a similar vein, this article uses an architectural metaphor and introduces design patterns as building blocks for mixed methods research design. A design pattern embeds one specific design decision into its…

Accurate item parameters and standard errors (SEs) are crucial for many multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) applications. A recent study proposed the Gaussian Variational Expectation Maximization (GVEM) algorithm to improve computational efficiency and estimation accuracy (Cho et al., 2021). However, the SE estimation procedure has yet to…

Increasingly, the broader public, media and policymakers are looking to qualitative research to provide answers to our most pressing social questions. While an exciting and perhaps overdue moment for qualitative researchers, it is also a time when the method is coming under increasing scrutiny for a lack of reliability and transparency. The…

The randomized response technique (RRT) is an effective method designed to obtain the stigmatized information from respondents while assuring the privacy. In this study, we propose a new two-stage RRT model to estimate the prevalence of sensitive attribute ([pi]). A simulation study shows that the empirical mean and variance of proposed estimator…

This article provides a meta-analysis of studies using the crosswise model (CM) in estimating the prevalence of sensitive characteristics in different samples and populations. On a data set of 141 items published in 33 either articles or books, we compare the difference ([delta]) between estimates based on the CM and a direct question (DQ). The…

In carrying out surveys involving sensitive characteristics, randomized response models have been considered among the best techniques since they provide the maximum privacy protection to the respondents and procure honest responses. Over the years, researchers have carried out studies on the estimation of proportions of the population possessing…

International survey researchers are increasingly turning to a geospatial sampling approach known as gridded population sampling for finer resolution and a more updated sampling frame than conventional census-based sampling. To date, there have been no direct comparisons of accuracy between survey results derived from the two methods. This…

Conventional estimators for indirect effects using a difference in coefficients and product of coefficients produce the same results for continuous outcomes. However, for binary outcomes, the difference in coefficient estimator systematically underestimates the indirect effects because of a scaling problem. One solution is to standardize…

Structural equation models comprise a large class of popular statistical models, including factor analysis models, certain mixed models, and extensions thereof. Model estimation is complicated by the fact that we typically have multiple interdependent response variables and multiple latent variables (which may also be called random effects or…

Employing nested sequences of models is a common practice when exploring the extent to which one set of variables mediates the impact of another set. Such an analysis in the context of logistic regression models confronts two challenges: (1) direct comparisons of coefficients across models are generally biased due to the changes in scale that…

Background: We have previously presented two educational interventions aimed to diminish causal illusions and promote critical thinking. In both cases, these interventions reduced causal illusions developed in response to active contingency learning tasks, in which participants were able to decide whether to introduce the potential cause in each…

There is a need to improve the ways in which Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) handles qualitative data. To this end, we propose to include ideas and routines from Grounded Theory (GT) in QCA. We will first argue that there is a natural fit between the two on the ontological level. On the methodological level, we will demonstrate in what ways…

This paper demonstrated how to apply Machine Learning (ML) techniques to analyze student interaction data collected in an online mathematics game. Using a data-driven approach, we examined 1) how different ML algorithms influenced the precision of middle-school students' (N = 359) performance (i.e. posttest math knowledge scores) prediction and 2)…

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine whether the results obtained from a 25-utterance conversational language sample were as reliable as those obtained from a 50-utterance sample. Method: Robust conversational language samples from 220 children with typically developing language (106 boys, 114 girls) ranging in age from 3;2 to 7;10…