Using a large contemporary data set (the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Supplement), the authors examined the effects of parental work schedules on adolescent risky behaviors at age 13 or 14 and the mechanisms that might explain them. Structural equation modeling suggests mothers who worked more often at night spent significantly less…

This study tested whether socio-economic status (SES) moderated the association between the psychosocial constructs included in the attitude-social influence-self-efficacy (ASE) model and fruit intake in Norwegian schoolchildren. The sample consisted of 962 Norwegian sixth graders, mean age 11.3 years. They were split into three SES groups, and…

This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 years for 173 low-achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5 years) to pre-adolescence (age 11 years), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated with structural equation…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between various coping-related variables and the evaluation of self-worth and subjective well-being among persons with spinal cord injury. Positive coping variables included hope, proactive coping style, and sense of humor, whereas negative coping variables included perceptions of stress,…

Methodological barriers have been highlighted as a primary reason for the limited research with lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people of color. Thus, strategies for anticipating and addressing potential methodological barriers are needed. To address this need, this article discusses potential challenges associated with conducting research with…

The estimation of nonlinear structural models is not trivial. One reason for this is that a closed form solution of the likelihood may not be feasible or does not exist. We propose to estimate nonlinear structural models using the efficient method of moments, as generating data according to the models is often very easy. A simulation study of the…

Statistical procedures based on the general linear model (GLM) share much in common with one another, both conceptually and practically. The use of structural equation modeling path diagrams as tools for teaching the GLM as a body of connected statistical procedures is presented. A heuristic data set is used to demonstrate a variety of univariate…

This article examines 4 approaches for explaining shared method variance, each applied to a longitudinal trait-state-occasion (TSO) model. Many approaches have been developed to account for shared method variance in multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. Some of these MTMM approaches (correlated method, orthogonal method, correlated method minus one,…

Structural equation modeling provides the framework for investigating experimental effects on the basis of variances and covariances in repeated measurements. A special type of confirmatory factor analysis as part of this framework enables the appropriate representation of the experimental effect and the separation of experimental and…

One can distinguish statistical models used in causal modeling from the causal interpretations that align them with substantive hypotheses. Causal modeling typically assumes an efficient causal interpretation of the statistical model. Causal modeling can also make use of mereological causal interpretations in which the state of the parts…

This research provides a direct comparison of effect size estimates based on structural equation modeling (SEM), item response theory (IRT), and raw scores. Differences between the SEM, IRT, and raw score approaches are examined under a variety of data conditions (IRT models underlying the data, test lengths, magnitude of group differences, and…

Recent missing data studies have argued in favor of an "inclusive analytic strategy" that incorporates auxiliary variables into the estimation routine, and Graham (2003) outlined methods for incorporating auxiliary variables into structural equation analyses. In practice, the auxiliary variables often have missing values, so it is reasonable to…

Using insights from ethnographic studies of conservative Protestant congregations, the authors propose and test a refined conceptual model of theological conservatism that accounts for three key components of a theologically conservative worldview: (1. epistemology, a belief in the Bible as the inspired word of God, (2. ontology, assumptions about…

Incomplete or missing data is a common problem in almost all areas of empirical research. It is well known that simple and ad hoc methods such as complete case analysis or mean imputation can lead to biased and/or inefficient estimates. The method of maximum likelihood works well; however, when the missing data mechanism is not one of missing…

Trust influences interactions among individuals and organizations but has been an elusive concept to define and measure. The Organizational Trust Inventory (OTI) measures three dimensions of organizational trust, as defined by Cummings and Bromiley (in: Kramer and Tyler (eds) Trust in Organizations, 1996), believing or feeling that others: keep…