Recent research in statistical reasoning has focused on the developmental process in students when learning statistical reasoning skills. This study investigates statistical reasoning from the perspective of individual differences. As manifestation of heterogeneity, students' prior attitudes toward statistics, measured by the extended Survey of…

Latent class analysis (LCA) is a statistical method used to identify a set of discrete, mutually exclusive latent classes of individuals based on their responses to a set of observed categorical variables. In multiple-group LCA, both the measurement part and structural part of the model can vary across groups, and measurement invariance across…

The search for cut-off criteria of fit indices for model fit evaluation (e.g., Hu & Bentler, 1999) assumes that these fit indices are sensitive to model misspecification, but not to different types of models. If fit indices were sensitive to different types of models that are misspecified to the same degree, it would be very difficult to establish…

Mediators are variables that explain the association between an independent variable and a dependent variable. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is widely used to test models with mediating effects. This article illustrates how to construct confidence intervals (CIs) of the mediating effects for a variety of models in SEM. Specifically, mediating…

Multilevel models have come to play an increasingly important role in many areas of social science research. However, in contrast to other modeling strategies, there is currently no widely used approach for graphically diagramming multilevel models. Ideally, such diagrams would serve two functions: to provide a formal structure for deriving the…

Few genetically-informative studies have attempted to explicitly identify the "shared environmental" (i.e., those environmental influences that contribute to sibling similarity) factors now known to contribute to adolescent delinquency. The current study therefore examined whether the parent-child relationship served as one source of these shared…

Two studies investigated the degree to which the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) performance and reading development is driven by shared phonological processes. Study 1 assessed RAN, phonological awareness, and reading performance in 1010 7- to 10-year-olds. Results showed that RAN deficits occurred in the absence of…

This study introduces a novel application of structural equation modeling (SEM) for the analysis of cortisol data that are collected using a pre-post-post design. By way of an extended example, an SEM model is developed that permits an examination of both the overall level of cortisol, as well as changes in cortisol (reactivity and regulation), as…

This paper provides theoretical and practical information about using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The first section discusses the theory of SEM, including five general steps: (1) model specification; (2) model identification; (3) model estimation; (4) testing model fit; and (5) model respecification. The second section applies…

The effect of bootstrapping was studied by examining whether major profile patterns were replicated when sample sizes were reduced. Profile patterns estimated from the original sample (n=645) of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of IntelligenceThird Edition (WPPSI-III) Standardization Data were considered major profiles. For bootstrapping,…

Contrasting positions about the evaluation of multiple tests of constraints and control of Type I errors in structural equation modeling (SEM) are presented. It is argued that researchers should consider controlling for Type I errors in evaluating multiple tests of constraints for other than exploratory analyses. (SLD)

Discusses a method for obtaining point and interval estimates of reliability for composites of measures with a general structure. The approach is based on fitting a correspondingly constrained structural equation model and generalizes earlier covariance structure analysis methods for scale reliability estimation with congeneric tests. (SLD)

Introduces a new inferential test for acyclic structural equation models (SEM) without latent variables or correlated errors. The test is based on the independence relations predicted by the directed acyclic graph of the SEMs, as given by the concept of d-separation. A wide range of distributional assumptions and structural functions can be…

Presents an extension of the method of estimating interaction effects among latent variables to latent growth curve models developed by K. Joreskog and F. Yang (1996). Illustrates the procedure and discusses results in terms of practical and statistical problems associated with interaction analyses in latent curve models and structural equation…

Studied the measurement of acquiescence in balanced scales using a structural equation modeling approach with subsamples of 986 and 992 from the same population of Belgian adults interviewed about ethnic prejudice. The strong relation in both populations of the latent style factor with a variable "sum of agreements" supports the idea…