Using Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling to Study Developmental Change in Relations Between Language and Literacy

• Main Authors: Quinn, J.M (Author), Wagner, R.K (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Inc. 2018
• Subjects: adolescent; Adolescent; adult; Adult; article; child; Child; child development; Child Development; Child, Preschool; female; human; human experiment; Humans; language; Language; latent class analysis; Latent Class Analysis; literacy; Literacy; major clinical study; male; Male; meta analysis; middle aged; Middle Aged; Models, Statistical; physiology; preschool child; reading; Reading; statistical model; structural equation modeling; student; young adult; Young Adult
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of Child Development to the meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading comprehension (RC) development. MASEM uses a two-stage approach: first, it provides a composite correlation matrix across included variables, and second, it fits hypothesized a priori models. The provided MASEM application used a large sample (N = 1,205,581) of students (ages 3.5–46.225) from 155 studies to investigate the factor structure and relations among components of RC. The practical implications of using this technique to study development are discussed. © 2018 The Authors. Child Development © 2018 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.