资源描述：
《Structural Equation Modeling of Mediation and Moderation With contextual Factors》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。
1、“Chapter9˙Little”—2007/2/12—15:58—page207—#1CHAPTERNINEStructuralEquationModelingofMediationandModerationWithContextualFactorsToddD.LittleUniversityofKansasNoelA.CardUniversityofArizonaJamesA.BovairdUniversityofNebraska-LincolnKristopherJ.PreacherChristianS.CrandallUniversit
2、yofKansasResearchersoftengrapplewiththeideathatanobservedrelationshipmaybepartofamorecomplexchainofeffects.Thesecomplexrelationshipsarede-scribedintermssuchasindirectinfluences,distalvs.proximalcauses,interme-diateoutcomes,andultimatecauses;allofwhichsharetheconceptofmediation.S
3、imilarly,researchersmustoftenconsiderthatanobservedrelationshipmaybepartofamorecomplex,qualifiedsystem.Theserelationshipsaredescribedusingconceptssuchasinteractions,subgroupdifferences,andshocks;allofwhichsharetheconceptofmoderation.Generallyspeaking,amediatorcanbethoughtofasthe
4、carrierortransporterofinformationalongthecausalchainofeffects.Amoderator,ontheotherhand,isthechangerofarelationshipinasystem.Inthischapter,weexplorebothempiricalandtheoreticalconsiderationsinmodelingmediationandmoderationusingstructuralequationmodeling.Our207“Chapter9˙Littl
5、e”—2007/2/12—15:58—page208—#2208LITTLEETAL.primaryfocusisonhowtomodelcontextualfactorsthataremeasuredascontinuouslatentvariables,highlightingthepowerofSEMtorepresentandtestthesetypesofinfluence(seeLittle,Card,Slegers,&Ledford,chap.6,thisvolume,foradiscussionofmoderatingcontex
6、tualfactorsthataremeasuredascategoricalvariables).MEDIATIONContextualfactorscanbeconceptualizedasmediatedinfluenceswherethecon-textualinformationisdeemedtobeadistalcausalinfluence.Forexample,earlyprenatalconditionscaninfluencecorticaldevelopment,whichinturncanin-fluencelaterintell
7、ectivefunctioning(seeWidaman,chap.17,thisvolume).Contextualfactorscanalsobeconceptualizedasthemediatinginfluencewherethecontextualinformationisdeemedtocarrythedistalcausalassociations.Forexample,children’stemperamentcharacteristicsmayinfluencetheoverallclassroomenvironment,which
8、inturnmayinfluencethequalityoflearningorschoolwell-beingofthec
