Applying Two-level Structural Equation Model to a Data Sample from Educational Psychology

Author: Ren-Hau Li(Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University),Min-Ning Yu(Department of Education, National Chengchi University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 53, No. 3
Date：December 2008
Pages：95-123
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2008125303005

Abstract：

The aim of this study is to introduce a two-level structural equation model and apply it to a large sample of empirical data. When data are collected from a multi-stage sampling design, they will have nested characteristics: in this case a within-level/within-group sample will violate the assumption of independence due to the between-level/between-group contextual effects. In such a case, multilevel statistical techniques should be applied to avoid problems due to intra-class correlations. The sample in this study was drawn from a PISA 2003 database: it included 948 schools and 26,884 15-year-old students. Five educational psychological constructs measured by 25 items were selected and formulated as an example for the analysis of a two-level structural equation model. After analysis via Mplus, which showed a good fit of model to data, the researchers compared the results using the conventional structural equation model with those using the two-level structural equation model, and furthermore explained the within-level and between-level structures of the two-level structural equation model. The many findings of this study are presented here, as well as suggestions for future studies based on these findings.

Keywords：Multilevel structural equation model, MUML, PISA

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