Abstract
Multilevel modeling (MLM) is a popular way of assessing mediation effects with clustered data. Two important limitations of this approach have been identified in prior research and a theoretical rationale has been provided for why multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) should be preferred. However, to date, no empirical evidence of MSEM's advantages relative to MLM approaches for multilevel mediation analysis has been provided. Nor has it been demonstrated that MSEM performs adequately for mediation analysis in an absolute sense. This study addresses these gaps and finds that the MSEM method outperforms 2 MLM-based techniques in 2-level models in terms of bias and confidence interval coverage while displaying adequate efficiency, convergence rates, and power under a variety of conditions. Simulation results support prior theoretical work regarding the advantages of MSEM over MLM for mediation in clustered data.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 161-182 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Structural Equation Modeling |
Volume | 18 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2011 |
Keywords
- Mediation
- Multilevel modeling
- Multilevel sem
- Structural equation modeling
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Decision Sciences
- Modeling and Simulation
- Sociology and Political Science
- Economics, Econometrics and Finance(all)