There is increasing interest in using factor scores in structural equation models and there have been numerous methodological papers on the topic. Nevertheless, sum scores, which are computed from adding up item responses, continue to be ubiquitous in practice. It is therefore important to compare simulation results involving factor scores to…

We propose new ways of robustifying goodness-of-fit tests for structural equation modeling under non-normality. These test statistics have limit distributions characterized by eigenvalues whose estimates are highly unstable and biased in known directions. To take this into account, we design model-based trend predictions to approximate the…

Research in human development often relies on composites, that is, composed variables such as indices. Their composite nature renders these variables inaccessible to conventional factor-centric psychometric validation techniques such as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In the context of human development research, there is currently no…

A procedure for evaluating the average R-squared index for a given set of observed variables in an exploratory factor analysis model is discussed. The method can be used as an effective aid in the process of model choice with respect to the number of factors underlying the interrelationships among studied measures. The approach is developed within…

A two-level data set can be structured in either long format (LF) or wide format (WF), and both have corresponding SEM approaches for estimating multilevel models. Intuitively, one might expect these approaches to perform similarly. However, the two data formats yield data matrices with different numbers of columns and rows, and their "cols :…

The present study describes an R function that implements six corrective procedures developed by Bartlett, Swain, and Yuan in the correction of 21 statistics associated with the omnibus Chi-square test, the residuals, or fit indices in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

The purpose of this two-part study is to evaluate methods for multiple group analysis when the comparison group is at the within level with multilevel data, using a multilevel factor mixture model (ML FMM) and a multilevel multiple-indicators multiple-causes (ML MIMIC) model. The performance of these methods was evaluated integrally by a series of…

Among all, Cronbach's Alpha and McDonald's Omega are commonly used for reliability estimations. The alpha uses inter-item correlations while omega is based on a factor analysis result. This study uses simulated ordinal data sets to test whether the alpha and omega produce different estimates. Their performances were compared according to the…

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to provide evaluative information on the recovery of model parameters and their standard errors for the two-parameter item response theory (IRT) model using different estimation methods by Mplus. The second is to provide easily accessible information for practitioners, instructors, and students…

Sport management research has evolved significantly despite its relatively short history as an academic discipline. Although the pace of scholarly progress has been impressive, the extent to which many research efforts have aided sport management in becoming a distinct academic discipline is, at times, questionable. A major challenge many scholars…

This simulation study was conducted to compare the performances of Frequentist and Bayesian approaches in the context of power to detect model misspecification in terms of omitted cross-loading in CFA models with respect to the several variables (number of omitted cross-loading, magnitude of main loading, number of factors, number of indicators…

This study investigated the psychometric properties of a teacher-reported version of a Swedish school climate instrument called the Pedagogical and Social Climate (PESOC), which consists of 95 items covering cultural, structural and social factors. A sample of 348 teachers from 19 Swedish secondary schools was used. Multilevel confirmatory factor…

This study examined a psychosocial mechanism of how general self-efficacy interacts with other key factors and influences degree aspiration for students enrolled in an urban diverse community college. Using general self-efficacy scales, the authors hypothesized the General Self-efficacy model for Community College students (the GSE-CC model). A…

Leadership style has been suggested as an important factor affecting knowledge management in organizations. Transformational leadership has been acknowledged as having a positive general influence on knowledge management. However, there is a lack of empirical studies examining the relationship between transformational leadership and knowledge…

High drop-out rates among first-year university students have led many researchers to attempt to gain a better understanding of academic persistence. However, despite this extensive literature, only a few studies have taken normative factors into account. These normative factors may be an essential factor of influence for persistence as it is…