Applied structural equation modeling to the investigation of the second-order factors structure in student ratings of teaching effectiveness. Data from 2,021 distance education students show the presence of a single second-order factor, which serves as a general factor of teaching effectiveness. Discusses future research on higher-order factors…

Used simulation to compare structural equation modeling methods for estimating and testing hypotheses about an interaction between continuous variables. Findings indicate that the two-stage least squares procedure exhibited more bias and lower power than the other methods. The Jaccard-Wan procedure (J. Jaccard and C. Wan, 1995) and maximum…

This article aims to examine determinants of social integration in the community among college students. Two-wave panel data from an undergraduate student sample (N = 310) was used to explore the effects of multiple sets of variables (personal, interpersonal, and situational) on social integration in the community. Structural equation analysis…

The researchers in this study examined the association between adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism and self-esteem. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations modeling were used to develop and test a model derived from theoretical links between perfectionism and self-esteem. Path models revealed that adaptive…

Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of age-heterogeneous samples have revealed correlational links between and within intellectual, sensory, and sensorimotor domains. Due to basic limitations of cross-sectional designs and a reluctance to disentangle antecedent-consequent relations in longitudinal designs, the functional significance and…

This simulation study investigated the robustness of structural equation modeling to different degrees of nonnormality under 2 estimation methods, generalized least squares and maximum likelihood, and 4 sample sizes, 100, 250, 500, and 1,000. Each of the slight and severe nonnormality degrees was comprised of pure skewness, pure kurtosis, and both…

This study examined the link between childhood sexual abuse and adolescent substance use among girls, and evaluated depressive self-concept and behavioral under-control (BUC) as pathways to substance use for sexually abused girls. Participants (n = 150) were drawn from a longitudinal study of the impact of domestic violence on the lives of women…

Purpose: The Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) has been validated in many diverse samples. This measure of health-related quality of life, however, has not yet been examined among older Mexican Americans, a rapidly growing subset of the older population. Design and Methods: We address the validity of the SF-36 in a…

A statistical relationship between student affect and student achievement is routinely observed--students who like a particular subject also tend to do well in that subject. Theory suggests that the underlying causality is a mutual influence relationship in which affect influences, and is influenced by, achievement. Published analyses, however,…

Continuity in relationship representation and developmental links between relationship representation and behavior from infancy to late adolescence were examined using longitudinal data from a risk sample (N185). Significant correlations were found among diverse representational assessments (e.g., interview, drawing, projective narrative) and…

Background: Choice behaviour has far-reaching consequences on students' educational careers. Previous models on course selection for example, the model of achievement-related choices (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) and of self-efficacy theory (Bandura, 1997), stress the importance of ability perceptions (self-concept of ability) as major determinants of…

A major shortcoming of macro-spatial research undertaken to date in Israel pertains to the neglect of state investment-related measures and the extent to which they mediate unequal opportunities to learn (OTL) and educational opportunities between localities. In the present study, OTL refer to class size and high-school tracking patterns.…

This study focused on misspecifications in composing parcels to represent a latent construct. Two measurement design factors, item reliability and intercorrelations among parcels, defined 12 true unidimensional parcel models. Deviations from the true model were examined via a 2-facet measurement model in which items and parcels represented the 2…

Environmental and genetic explanations have been given for Black-White racial differences in intelligence and other traits. In science, viable, alternative hypotheses are ideally given equal Bayesian prior weights; but this has not been true in the study of racial differences. This article advocates testing environmental and genetic hypotheses of…

A latent-variable study examined whether verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) capacity measures reflect a primarily domain-general construct by testing 236 participants in 3 span tests each of verbal WM. visuospatial WM, verbal short-term memory (STM), and visuospatial STM. as well as in tests of verbal and spatial reasoning and general…