IRT studies of many groups: the alignment method

Muthén, Bengt; Asparouhov, Tihomir

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00978

Cited by 176 publications

(254 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

229

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In other words, if the researcher or clinician seeks to compare MP across cultures, the items and their underlying factors need to be comparable (invariant). There are different procedures to study the invariance of a given model including multiple indicators, multiple causes (also known as MIMIC also called CFA with covariates Jöreskog and Goldberger, 1975; Muthén, 1989), multi-group CFA, and a more recent method called alignment (Muthén and Asparouhov, 2014). For a review of these procedures and other modern invariance testing techniques see Van De Schoot et al (2015).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given the relationship between language acquisition and music processing, musical perception (MP) skills have been proposed as a tool for early diagnosis of speech and language difficulties; therefore, a psychometric instrument is needed to assess music perception in children under 10 years of age, a crucial period in neurodevelopment. We created a set of 80 musical stimuli encompassing seven domains of music perception to inform perception of tonal, atonal, and modal stimuli, in a random sample of 1006 children, 6–13 years of age, equally distributed from first to fifth grades, from 14 schools (38% private schools) in So Paulo State. The underlying model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. A model encompassing seven orthogonal specific domains (contour, loudness, scale, timbre, duration, pitch, and meter) and one general music perception factor, the “m-factor,” showed excellent fit indices. The m-factor, previously hypothesized in the literature but never formally tested, explains 93% of the reliable variance in measurement, while only 3.9% of the reliable variance could be attributed to the multidimensionality caused by the specific domains. The 80 items showed no differential item functioning based on sex, age, or enrolment in public vs. private school, demonstrating the important psychometric feature of invariance. Like Charles Spearman's g-factor of intelligence, the m-factor is robust and reliable. It provides a convenient measure of auditory stimulus apprehension that does not rely on verbal information, offering a new opportunity to probe biological and psychological relationships with music perception phenomena and the etiologies of speech and language disorders.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Item parameters should have the same relation with the underlying trait (e.g., item discrimination) and location along the latent trait across datasets. We used Bayesian alignment analysis to identify and correct measurement bias as a function of study source (Asparouhov & Muthén, 2014; Muthén & Asparouhov, 2014). Alignment analysis is a type of multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis, available in Mplus version 7.1, in which item loadings and thresholds are systematically tested for differences across multiple groups (e.g., study).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of education and race on cognitive decline: An integrative study of generalizability versus study-specific results.

Gross¹,

Mungas²,

Crane³

et al. 2015

Psychology and Aging

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective To examine variability across multiple prospective cohort studies in level and rate of cognitive decline by race/ethnicity and years of education. Method To compare data across studies, we harmonized estimates of common latent factors representing overall or general cognitive performance, memory, and executive function derived from the: 1) Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, Inwood Columbia Aging Project (N=4,115), 2) Spanish and English Neuropsychological Assessment Scales (N=525), 3) Duke Memory, Health, and Aging study (N=578), and 4) Neurocognitive Outcomes of Depression in the Elderly (N=585). We modeled cognitive change over age for cognitive outcomes by race, education, and study. We adjusted models for sex, dementia status, and study-specific characteristics. Results For baseline levels of overall cognitive performance, memory, and executive function, differences in race and education tended to be larger than between-study differences and consistent across studies. This pattern did not hold for rate of cognitive decline: effects of education and race/ethnicity on cognitive change were not consistently observed across studies, and when present were small, with racial/ethnic minorities and those with lower education declining at faster rates. Discussion In this diverse set of datasets, non-Hispanic whites and those with higher education had substantially higher baseline cognitive test scores. However, differences in the rate of cognitive decline by race/ethnicity and education did not follow this pattern. This study suggests that baseline test scores and longitudinal change have different determinants, and future studies to examine similarities and differences of causes of cognitive decline in racially/ethnically and educationally diverse older groups is needed.

show abstract

“…Rather, researchers are typically satisfied with models that show approximate equivalence (i.e., some loadings or intercepts free to vary; Byrne et al 1989) or partial measurement invariance across groups. The frequency of this result has caused some investigators to question whether the requirements for metric invariance may be too stringent Muthén and Asparouhov 2014;van de Schoot et al 2013) particularly when testing measurement invariance across more than two groups. Moreover, identification of partial measurement invariance commonly requires progressive manual testing of model changes suggested by modification indices, a process that becomes analytically cumbersome as the number of groups increases beyond two.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The number of possible appropriately fitting partial invariance models grows with item count and sample size, and no guarantee is made that the selected model will represent the most parsimonious or theoretically sound solution (Asparouhov and Muthén 2014). Asparouhov and Muthén (2014) and Muthén and Asparouhov (2014) have recently presented a novel technique that uses an iterative algorithm to identify the most parsimonious partial invariance model. The alignment optimization method does not constrain parameters across groups, but instead attempts to identify the permutation of constraints that will allow for maximum invariance across groups, while minimizing loss of fit to the data.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agreement in Youth–Parent Perceptions of Parenting Behaviors: A Case for Testing Measurement Invariance in Reporter Discrepancy Research

Russell

Graham

Neill

et al. 2016

J Youth Adolescence

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While conventional wisdom suggests that parents and their adolescent offspring will often disagree, the nature of discrepancies in informant reports of parenting behaviors is still unclear. This article suggests testing measurement invariance in an effort to clarify if discrepancies in informant scores reflect true differences in perspectives on the same construct, or if the instrument is simply not measuring the same construct across parents and youth. The study provides an example by examining invariance and discrepancy across child, adolescent, and parent reports on the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. The sample for this study was 255 youth (51.4 % male) aged 6-17 years (M age = 12.3 years) and an accompanying parent. A five-factor model of the measure was found to provide approximately equivalent measurement across four participant groups (children under 12 years, adolescents aged 12-18 years, and parents of each group, respectively). Latent mean levels of reported parenting constructs varied greatly across informants. Age moderated the association between reports of two subscales, Parental Involvement and Positive Parenting, such that adolescents were more consistent with parents. The findings highlight the utility of testing measurement invariance across informants prior to evaluating differences in their reports, and demonstrate the benefits of considering invariance in the larger conversation over informant discrepancies.

show abstract

IRT studies of many groups: the alignment method

Cited by 176 publications

References 8 publications

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

Assessing Music Perception in Young Children: Evidence for and Psychometric Features of the M-Factor

Effects of education and race on cognitive decline: An integrative study of generalizability versus study-specific results.

Agreement in Youth–Parent Perceptions of Parenting Behaviors: A Case for Testing Measurement Invariance in Reporter Discrepancy Research

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About