Structural equation modeling: Back to basics

Major technological advances incorporated into structural equation modeling (SEM) computer programs now make it possible for practitioners who are basically unfamiliar with the purposes and limitations of SEM to use this tool within their research contexts. The current move by program developers to market more user friendly software packages is a welcomed trend in the social and behavioral science research community. The quest to simplify the data analysis step in the research process has—at least with regard to SEM—created a situation that allows practitioners to apply SEM but forgetting, knowingly ignoring, or most dangerously, being ignorant of some basic philosophical and statistical issues that must be addressed before sound SEM analyses should be conducted. This article focuses on some of the almost forgotten topics taken here from each step in the SEM process: model conceptualization, identification and parameter estimation, and data‐model fit assessment and model modification. The main objective is to raise awareness among researchers new to SEM of a few basic but key philosophical and statistical issues. These should be addressed before launching into any one of the new generation of SEM software packages and being led astray by the seemingly irresistible temptation to prematurely start “playing” with the data.     

College Student Success: A Qualitative Modeling Approach

This qualitative study highlighted student perspectives on barriers to success at a community college located in a south Texas city. The study examined barriers to student success, the knowledge that successful students possess to overcome the barriers, and the actions that successful students undertake to overcome the barriers. Padilla's (2004 Padilla , R. V. ( 1999 ). College student retention: Focus on success . Journal of College Student Retention , 1 ( 2 ), 131 – 145 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) theoretical framework and methods for modeling student success provided the conceptual framework for the study. The data analysis resulted in the development of a local student success model and an implementation model for student services at the subject campus.     

Children Develop Initial Orthographic Knowledge During Storybook Reading

We examined whether young children acquire orthographic knowledge during structured adult-led storybook reading even though minimal viewing time is devoted to print. Sixty-two kindergarten children were read 12 storybook “chapters” while their eye movements were tracked. Results indicated that the children quickly acquired initial mental graphemic representations of target nonwords. This learning occurred even though they focused on the target nonwords approximately one fourth of the total time while viewing the pages. Their ability to acquire the initial orthographic representations of the target nonwords and their viewing time was affected by the linguistic statistical regularities of the words. The results provide evidence of orthographic learning during structured storybook reading and for the use of implicit linguistic statistical regularities for learning new orthographic word forms in the early stages of reading development.     

Cognitive Dissonance and Teachers-In-Training

The paper-and-pencil 50-item elementary school form of the dogmatism scale was shortened by use of the item statistics x50 and ß to produce a 20-item instrument with a test characteristic curve designed to maximally spread respondents around the midpoint of the score range. Reliability coefficients for selected sub-sample responses to the modified instrument by school-aged adolescents range from .81 to .77 with a coefficient of . 78 being reported for the general sample (N = 1, 284).     

On sabbatical leave

This article argues for the need to differentiate between professional and support careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). Using data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY), the article identifies important differences in the nature of the work and responsibility that differentiate the scientific workforce into a professional component and a support component. Further analysis demonstrates that the kind of training and education needed for STEMM support occupations is generally lower and different than the education needed for entrance into a STEMM profession. The LSAY data indicate that the students planning to enter a STEMM profession tend to make their choice earlier, select appropriate courses and programs to obtain professional credentials, and make a substantially longer commitment to educational preparation than do young adults who enter STEMM support occupations. We suggest some policy implications that may flow from this distinction.     

The administrator's battleground: Conflict among values

Creative Bookbinding. Pauline Johnson. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963. Pp. 263. $9.50.)

The Curriculum of the Elementary School. George A. Beauchamp. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1964. Pp. 381. $7.50.)

The Elementary School Teacher. Dorothy G. Peterson. (New York: Appleton‐Century‐Crofts, 1964. Pp. 570. $6.50.)

Jullien's Plan for Comparative Education. Comparative Education Studies. Stewart Fraser. (New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1964. Pp. 147. $3.50.)

State Politics and the Public Schools: An Exploratory Analysis. Nicholas A. Masters, Robert H. Salisbury, and Thomas H. Eliot. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964. Pp. 319. $6.95.)

Student Teaching: Cases and Comments. Elizabeth Hunter and Edmund Amidon. (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1964. Pp. 158. $1.95.)

Teaching and Learning in Adult Education. Harry L. Miller. (New York: Macmillan, 1964. Pp. 340. $6.50.)

Teaching Science in Today's Secondary Schools. Walter A. Thurber and Alfred T. Collette. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1964. Pp. 640. $8.50.)     

Reduction in public speaking state anxiety during performance as a function of sensitization processes

Recently, scholars have suggested that biological factors, such as temperament, influence human social behavior, particularly in the formation of traits, such as communication apprehension. Despite progress in this area, the relationship between temperament and states, such as speech anxiety, remains unclear. Theories of temperament predict that the rate at which subjects habituate to stress varies inversely with the degree to which they are sensitized during initial confrontation with stress‐producing stimuli. The inverse relationship between habituation and sensitization, in the context of public speaking state anxiety, is examined in this report. In two separate studies, using both physiological and psychological measures of state anxiety, the inverse relationship between sensitization and habituation was confirmed. Specifically, sensitization accounted for 69.1% and 50.3% of the variance in physiological and psychological habituation, respectively.     

Nanoparticle image velocimetry at topologically structured surfaces

Nanoparticle image velocimetry (nano-PIV), based on total internal reflection fluorescent microscopy, is very useful to investigate fluid flows within ∼100 nm from a surface; but so far it has only been applied to flow over smooth surfaces. Here we show that it can also be applied to flow over a topologically structured surface, provided that the surface structures can be carefully configured not to disrupt the evanescent-wave illumination. We apply nano-PIV to quantify the flow velocity distribution over a polydimethylsiloxane surface, with a periodic gratinglike structure (with 215 nm height and 2 μm period) fabricated using our customized multilevel lithography method. The measured tracer displacement data are in good agreement with the computed theoretical values. These results demonstrate new possibilities to study the interactions between fluid flow and topologically structured surfaces.     

The role of coach-athlete relationship quality in team sport athletes’ psychophysiological exhaustion: implications for physical and cognitive performance

The present study aimed to examine associations between the quality of the coach-athlete relationship and athlete exhaustion by assessing physiological and cognitive consequences. Male and female athletes (N = 82) representing seven teams across four different sports, participated in a quasi-experimental study measuring physical performance on a 5-meter multiple shuttle test, followed by a Stroop test to assess cognitive performance. Participants provided saliva samples measuring cortisol as a biomarker of acute stress response and completed questionnaires measuring exhaustion, and coach-athlete relationship quality. Structural equation modelling revealed a positive relationship between the quality of the coach-athlete relationship and Stroop performance, and negative relationships between the quality of the coach-athlete relationship and cortisol responses to high-intensity exercise, cognitive testing, and exhaustion. The study supports previous research on socio-cognitive correlates of athlete exhaustion by highlighting associations with the quality of the coach-athlete relationship.