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ERIC Number: EJ1125357
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jan
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1644
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Intraclass Correlation on the Effectiveness of Level-Specific Fit Indices in Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling: A Monte Carlo Study
Hsu, Hsien-Yuan; Lin, Jr-Hung; Kwok, Oi-Man; Acosta, Sandra; Willson, Victor
Educational and Psychological Measurement, v77 n1 p5-31 Jan 2017
Several researchers have recommended that level-specific fit indices should be applied to detect the lack of model fit at any level in multilevel structural equation models. Although we concur with their view, we note that these studies did not sufficiently consider the impact of intraclass correlation (ICC) on the performance of level-specific fit indices. Our study proposed to fill this gap in the methodological literature. A Monte Carlo study was conducted to investigate the performance of (a) level-specific fit indices derived by a partially saturated model method (e.g., CFI[subscript PS_B] and CFI[subscript PS_W]) and (b) SRMR[subscript W] and SRMR[subscript B] in terms of their performance in multilevel structural equation models across varying ICCs. The design factors included intraclass correlation (ICC: ICC1 = 0.091 to ICC6 = 0.500), numbers of groups in between-level models (NG: 50, 100, 200, and 1,000), group size (GS: 30, 50, and 100), and type of misspecification (no misspecification, between-level misspecification, and within-level misspecification). Our simulation findings raise a concern regarding the performance of between-level-specific partial saturated fit indices in low ICC conditions: the performances of both TLI[subscript PS_B] and RMSE A[subscript PS_B] were more influenced by ICC compared with CF I[subscript PS_B] and SRMR[subscript B]. However, when traditional cutoff values (RMSEA= 0.06; CFI, TLI= 0.95; SRMR= 0.08) were applied, CFI[subscript PS_B] and TLI[subscript PS_B] were still able to detect misspecified between-level models even when ICC was as low as 0.091 (ICC1). On the other hand, both RMSEA[subscript PS_B] and SRMR[subscript B] were not recommended under low ICC conditions.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A