Points out two concerns with recent research by F. Li and others (2000) and T. Duncan and others (1999) that extended the structural equation model of latent interactions developed by K. Joreskog and F. Yang (1996) to latent growth modeling. Used mathematical derivation and a comparison of alternative models fitted to simulated data to develop a…

Suggests that modeling change on the latent dimensions of interest is a better approach to measuring change than focusing on observed change scores and their properties. Discusses a latent-variable modeling approach that focuses on ability-change scores to permit estimation of individual latent-change scores and the relationship of ability-change…

Describes a structural equation model that permits estimation of the reliability index and coefficient of a composite index for congeneric measures. The method is also helpful in exploring the factorial structure of an item set, and its use in scale reliability estimation and development is illustrated. (SLD)

Drawing on R. Agnew's (Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology 30: 47-87, 1992) general strain theory, this paper examines whether depressed mood and anger mediate the effects of family conflict on delinquency. We examine data on 7,758 students, 14-16 years old, attending the compulsory 9th and 10th grades of…

The coding of time in growth curve models has important implications for the interpretation of the resulting model that are sometimes not transparent. The authors develop a general framework that includes predictors of growth curve components to illustrate how parameter estimates and their standard errors are exactly determined as a function of…

One model that is potentially useful in the rehabilitation field is the Consumer-Directed Theory of Empowerment (CDTE; Kosciulek, 1999a). However, additional empirical data are needed to further develop and critically evaluate the CDTE. To accomplish this task, the purpose of this study was to test the hypothesized structural model CDTE in a…

Effects of incomplete data on fit indexes remain relatively unexplored. We evaluate a wide set of fit indexes (?[squared], root mean squared error of appproximation, Normed Fit Index [NFI], Tucker-Lewis Index, comparative fit index, gamma-hat, and McDonald's Centrality Index) varying conditions of sample size (100-1,000 in increments of 50),…

Conventional wisdom in missing data research dictates adding variables to the missing data model when those variables are predictive of (a) missingness and (b) the variables containing missingness. However, it has recently been shown that adding variables that are correlated with variables containing missingness, whether or not they are related to…

The relation among fit indexes, power, and sample size in structural equation modeling is examined. The noncentrality parameter is required to compute power. The 2 existing methods of computing power have estimated the noncentrality parameter by specifying an alternative hypothesis or alternative fit. These methods cannot be implemented easily and…

Conventional structural equation modeling fits a covariance structure implied by the equations of the model. This treatment of the model often gives misleading results because overall goodness of fit tests do not focus on the specific constraints implied by the model. An alternative treatment arising from Pearl's directed acyclic graph theory…

Recognizing recent criticisms concerning the cross-cultural generalizability of self-determination theory (SDT), the authors tested the SDT view that high school students in collectivistically oriented South Korea benefit from classroom experiences of autonomy support and psychological need satisfaction. In Study 1, experiences of autonomy,…

Although preventive interventions that include both parent and child components produce stronger effects on disruptive behavior than child-only interventions, engaging parents in behavioral parent training is a significant challenge. This study examined the effects of specific risk factors for child disruptive behavior on parent attendance in…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a frequently used multivariate analysis technique in statistics. Jennrich and Sampson (1966) solved a significant EFA factor loading matrix rotation problem by deriving the direct Quartimin rotation. Jennrich was also the first to develop standard errors for rotated solutions, although these have still not made…

This study examines prostitution, homelessness, delinquency and crime, and school problems as potential mediators of the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect (CAN) and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. Children with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect (ages 0-11) during 1967-1971 were matched with…

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a data-analytic technique that allows researchers to test complex theoretical models. Most published applications of SEM involve analyses of cross-sectional recursive (i.e., unidirectional) models, but it is possible for researchers to test more complex designs that involve variables observed at multiple…