June 2025 Live Online Short Course

The short course covers three advanced structural equation modeling (SEM) topics: (a) testing measurement invariance; (b) latent growth modeling; and (c) evaluating reciprocal relationships in SEM. The instructor lectures about half of the time with the remaining time devoted to having participants run examples with actual data provided by the instructor. Participants go home with usable examples and syntax. The measurement invariance testing section focuses on the procedures as outlined in the Vandenberg and Lance (2000) Organizational Research Methods article. Namely, we will cover the 9 invariance tests starting with the tests of equal variance-covariance matrices and ending with tests of latent mean differences. We will use a multi-sample approach in undertaking the invariance tests, and you will be shown how to test latent mean differences using the latent means of the latent variables within each group. The workshop then advances to operationalizing latent growth models within the SEM framework. Essentially, this is how to use one’s longitudinal data to actually capture the dynamic processes in one’s theory by creating vectors of change across time. The participant will also be exposed to modeling how the change in one variable impacts change in another. We will also use mixed modeling. And at the end of it, I introduce the participants to latent profile modeling with latent growth curves. The final piece is the testing of models with feedback loops via an SEM-Journal article by Edward Rigdon (1995). We will go through his 4 different models and what they mean. In doing so, we will extensively cover model identification as it is particularly important to testing reciprocal effects.