Methodological Measurement Fruitfulness of Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM): New Approaches to Key Substantive Issues in Motivation and Engagement

Abstract

The most popular measures of multidimensional constructs typically fail to meet standards of good measurement: goodness of fit, measurement invariance, lack of differential item functioning, and well-differentiated factors that are not so highly correlated as to detract from their discriminant validity. Part of the problem, the authors argue, is undue reliance on overly restrictive independent cluster models of confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) in which each item loads on one, and only one, factor. Here the authors demonstrate exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), an integration of the best aspects of CFA and traditional exploratory factor analyses (EFA). On the basis of responses to the 11-factor Motivation and Engagement Scale ( n = 7,420, Mage = 14.22), we demonstrate that ESEM fits the data much better and results in substantially more differentiated (less correlated) factors than corresponding CFA models. Guided by a 13-model taxonomy of ESEM full-measurement (mean structure) invariance, the authors then demonstrate invariance of factor loadings, item intercepts, item uniquenesses, and factor variancescovariances, across gender and over time. ESEM has broad applicability to other areas of research that cannot be appropriately addressed with either traditional EFA or CFA and should become a standard tool for use in psychometric tests of psychological assessment instruments.

El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: una guía práctica, revisada y actualizada

“…Ferrando y Anguiano-Carrasco, 2010; Ferrando y Lorenzo-Seva (2000); Marsh et al, 2009Marsh et al, , 2010Marsh et al, , 2011. Recuérdese que en el modelo del AFC, algunas de las hipótesis plantean que las saturaciones de los ítems en los factores que supuestamente no miden son nulas.…”

“…El ESEM (e.g., Marsh et al, 2011;Morin, Marsh y Nagengast, 2013) es una aproximación similar al AFC, pero donde las saturaciones de los ítems en los factores que "no les corresponden", -i.e. las saturaciones en los factores que supuestamente no miden (o cross-loadings)-, no se fijan a cero.…”

Adaptation of an entrepreneurial motivation scale into Spanish.

“…ESEM is an alternative to the traditional CFA proposed by Marsh, Liem, Martin, Morin and Nagengast (2011) and is designed to overcome the adjustment problems that occur when applying CFA to typical performance measures. This approach enables you to merge the best aspects of CFA, EFA and structural equation models into a comprehensive framework whilst adding flexibility to all of the subcomponents (Marsh, Lüdtke, Nagengast, Morin, & Von Davier, 2013).…”

Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling of Personality Data

“…A number of authors have interpreted these findings as indicative of the inability of CFA to accurately model the complexity of human personality (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1990;Church & Burke, 1994;McCrae, Zonderman, Costa, Bond, & Paunonen, 1996). In the recent literature, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM; ) has been suggested as a promising tool in personality research and a possible alternative to CFA (Marsh et al, 2009;Marsh et al, 2010;Marsh, Liem, Martin, Morin, & Nagengast, 2011;. The focus of the current study is to compare CFA and ESEM for both structural and criterion analyses of personality data, and to further explore the similarities and differences in the latent constructs which result from the application of each methodology.…”