Ecodevelopmental theory is a theoretical framework used to explain the interplay among risk and protective processes associated with HIV risk behaviors among adolescents. Although ecodevelopmentally based interventions have been found to be efficacious in preventing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth, this theory has not yet been directly…

Findings of a study that identified the school-level factors that affect teachers' dispositions toward their work are presented in this paper, which focuses on teacher satisfaction, professional engagement, commitment, and efficacy. Data were derived from the teachers' survey portion of the Teachers and Administrators Survey (ATS) from the High…

This study highlights the correlation between seventh grade students' (n=429) beliefs about how mathematics is learned and their achievement in mathematics. Results from structural relation modeling indicate that, when beliefs are considered as a single construct, the relationship between beliefs and achievement is much stronger than when beliefs…

Derived longitudinal causal models of growth in mathematics and English constructs using three waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (n=24,599). Results indicate that the contribution of prior variables in English and mathematics to subsequent outcomes in both subjects was similar for females and males. Contains 68…

Two studies tested a model relating social competence to social support and child-parent attachment for Head Start children. Results supported the conjecture that social competence should be viewed as hierarchically organized. A model consistent with causal pathways from attachment security to support networks and social competence, and from…

An existing large data set, the Health and Retirement Study 2000 (HRS 2000) was used to explore the relationship between cognition and other factors for individuals aged 65 and older, with a final sample of 1,610 males and 3,549 females. Using structural equation modeling, the entire model was tested to determine if there were differences in how…

An alternative baseline model for comparative fit assessment of structural equation models is described, evaluated, and compared to the standard "null" baseline model. The new "equal correlation" model constrains all variables to have equal, rather than zero, correlations, but all variances are free. Advantages and limitations…

Discusses concerns with the model proposed by E. Rigdon for computing incremental fit indices in which all measured variables are equally correlated (as opposed to the traditional null model). Proposes retaining the traditional null model with emphasis on the comparative fit of alternative models within a nested sequence that could include the new…

Proposed a new nonlinear structural equation model with fixed covariates to deal with some complicated substantive theory and developed a Bayesian path sampling procedure for model comparison. Illustrated the approach with an illustrative example using data from an international study. (SLD)

Structural equation modeling is used in the simultaneous study of individual and group latent change patterns on several longitudinally assessed variables. The approach, which is based on a special case of the comprehensive latent curve analysis of W. Meredith and J. Tisak (1990), is illustrated with a two-group study. (SLD)

Methods are offered for conducting hypothesis testing associated with disattenuated validity coefficients to overcome limitations of some other suggested approaches. Through using classical test theory's notion of reliability in the form of structured path models, such hypothesis testing may be done with hierarchically related structural equation…

Simulation results show that the power to detect small mean differences when fitting a model with free residual variances across groups decreases as the difference in R squared increases. This decrease is more pronounced in the presence of correlated errors and if group sample sizes differ. (SLD)

Reexamined the nature of structural equation modeling (SEM) estimates of autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models, replicated the simulation experiments of P. Molenaar, and examined the behavior of the log-likelihood ratio test. Simulation studies indicate that estimates of ARMA parameters observed with SEM software are identical to those…

Studied the use of different weighting techniques in structural equation modeling and found, through simulation, that the use of an effective sample size weight provides unbiased estimates of key parameters and their sampling variances. Also discusses use of a popular normalization technique of scaling weights. (SLD)

This article presents a straightforward classification system that is a necessary and sufficient condition for identification of the structural component of structural equation models of the block-recursive type with no more than two equations per block. Limitations of other identification techniques are discussed. (SLD)