Myung Hee Im

Teacher-Student Relationship and Peer Disliking and Liking across Grades 1-4.

Between-child and within-child effects of teacher-student warmth and conflict on childrens peer-nominated disliking and liking across Grades 1-4 (ages 6-10) were investigated in a sample of 746 ethnically diverse and academically at-risk children in Texas. Multilevel modeling controlled for time-invariant between-child differences while modeling the effect of time-varying teacher-student relationship (TSR) warmth and conflict on childrens peer relatedness. Teachers reported on warmth and conflict. Peers reported on liking and disliking. Above between-child effects of average levels of teacher warmth and conflict on initial level and rate of change in liking and disliking and classroom teacher support, year-to-year changes in TSR conflict and warmth predicted intraindividual change in childrens peer disliking but not peer liking.

Effect of school belonging trajectories in grades 6–8 on achievement: Gender and ethnic differences

This study investigated the association between trajectories of school belonging across grades 6-8 and academic achievement in grade 8 in an ethnically diverse sample of 527 academically at-risk adolescents. Students reported annually on school belonging. Reading and math achievement were assessed at grade 5 (baseline) and grade 8. Interactive effects of gender and ethnicity were found in the conditional growth models for school belonging. Girls of all ethnicities had identical growth trajectories and reported higher initial school belonging than Euro-American or Latino boys. Latino and Euro-American males had lower initial level of school belonging than African American males, and Latino males had lower growth in school belonging than Euro-American males. In structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses, initial level of school belonging predicted grade 8 reading for girls and grade 8 math for boys and girls, above prior achievement and school and child covariates, but growth in school belonging predicted grade 8 achievement only for African American students. Implications for strategies to improve school belonging among academically at-risk youth are discussed.

Testing Statistical Moderation in Research on Home–School Partnerships: Establishing the Boundary Conditions

In this chapter, we provide a tutorial on how to test for moderated effects of home–school relationships using different statistical approaches. We first provide a brief review of current research on moderated effects of home–school relationships to illustrate the theoretical and practical value of statistical testing of moderated effects. Next, with a detailed multilevel data example, we demonstrate different statistical methods, including: moderation models with composite scores, latent factors, and the reliability-adjusted composite scores as well as the use of the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) to test the moderating effect of a child characteristic (i.e., ADHD symptoms) on home–school relationship. We have used both SPSS Mixed and Mplus to analyze the models and included the corresponding annotated syntax of both programs in this chapter. We also discuss some related issues on testing moderation effects such as centering variables and handling missing data to provide guidance to researchers.

Effects of Extracurricular Participation during Middle School on Academic Motivation and Achievement at Grade 9.

We investigated the effect of participating in two domains of extracurricular activities (sports and performance arts/clubs) in Grades 7 and 8 on Grade 9 academic motivation and letter grades, above baseline performance. Participants were 483 students (55% male; 33% Euro-American, 25% African American, and 39% Latino). Propensity score weighting controlled for potential confounders in all analyses. Delayed (Grade 8 only) and continuous participation (Grades 7 and 8) in sports predicted competence beliefs and valuing education; delayed and continuous participation in performance arts/clubs predicted teacher-rated engagement and letter grades. Benefits of participation were similar across gender and ethnicity; however, Latino youth were least likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Implications for reducing ethnic and income disparities in educational attainment are discussed.

Impact of Not Addressing Partially Cross-Classified Multilevel Structure in Testing Measurement Invariance: A Monte Carlo Study

In educational settings, researchers are likely to encounter multilevel data with cross-classified structure. However, due to the lack of familiarity and limitations of statistical software for cross-classified modeling, most researchers adopt less optimal approaches to analyze cross-classified multilevel data in testing measurement invariance. We conducted two Monte Carlo studies to investigate the performances of testing measurement invariance with cross-classified multilevel data when the noninvarinace is at the between-level: (a) the impact of ignoring crossed factor using conventional multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) which assumes hierarchical multilevel data in testing measurement invariance and (b) the adequacy of the cross-classified multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) models with cross-classified data. We considered two design factors, intraclass correlation (ICC) and magnitude of non-invariance. Generally, MCFA demonstrated very low statistical power to detect non-invariance. The low power was plausibly related to the underestimated factor loading differences and the underestimated ICC due to the redistribution of the variance component from the ignored crossed factor. The results demonstrated possible incorrect statistical inferences with conventional MCFA analyses that assume multilevel data as hierarchical structure for testing measurement invariance with cross-classified data (non-hierarchical structure). On the contrary, the cross-classified MIMIC model demonstrated acceptable performance with cross-classified data.