Digital Module 34: Introduction to Multilevel Measurement Modeling

Abstract

Module Abstract

Clustered data structures are common in many areas of educational and psychological research (e.g., students clustered in schools, patients clustered by clinician). In the course of conducting research, questions are often administered to obtain scores reflecting latent constructs. Multilevel measurement models (MLMMs) allow for modeling measurement (the relationship of test items to constructs) and the relationships between variables in a clustered data structure. Modeling the two concurrently is important for accurately representing the relationships between items and constructs, and between constructs and other constructs/variables. The barrier to entry with MLMMs can be high, with many equations and less-documented software functionality. This module reviews two different frameworks for multilevel measurement modeling: (1) multilevel modeling and (2) structural equation modeling. We demonstrate the entire process in R with working code and available data, from preparing the dataset, through writing and running code, to interpreting and comparing output for the two approaches.