Investigating multilevel mediation with fully or partially nested data

Existing studies of the impact of economic development on political trust in China have two major gaps: they fail to explain how economic development contributes to the hierarchical trust pattern, and they do not pay enough attention to the underlying mechanisms. In light of cultural theory and political control theory, we propose adapting performance theory into a theory of “asymmetrical attribution of performance” to better illuminate the case of China. This adapted theory leads to dual pathway theses: expectation fulfillment and local blaming. Using a multilevel mediation model, we show that expectation fulfillment mainly upholds trust in the central government, whereas local blaming undermines trust in local governments. We also uncover a rural–urban distinction in the dual pathway, revealing that both theses are more salient among rural Chinese.

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Calculating level-specific SEM fit indices for multilevel mediation analyses

The Stata Journal Promoting communications on statistics and Stata ◽

10.1177/1536867x211000022 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 195-205

Author(s):

W. Scott Comulada

Keyword(s):

Methadone Maintenance Treatment ◽

Maintenance Treatment ◽

Multilevel Models ◽

Mean Squared Error ◽

Methadone Maintenance ◽

Fit Indices ◽

Mediation Analyses ◽

Multilevel Mediation ◽

Squared Error ◽

Fit Index

Stata’s gsem command provides the ability to fit multilevel structural equation models (SEM) and related multilevel models. A motivating example is provided by multilevel mediation analyses (MA) conducted on patient data from Methadone Maintenance Treatment clinics in China. Multilevel MA conducted through the gsem command examined the mediating effects of patients’ treatment progression and rapport with counselors on their treatment satisfaction. Multilevel models accounted for the clustering of patient observations within clinics. SEM fit indices, such as the comparative fit index and the root mean squared error of approximation, are commonly used in the SEM model selection process. Multilevel models present challenges in constructing fit indices because there are multiple levels of hierarchy to account for in establishing goodness of fit. Level-specific fit indices have been proposed in the literature but have not been incorporated into the gsem command. I created the gsemgof command to fill this role. Model results from the gsem command are used to calculate the level-specific comparative fit index and root mean squared error of approximation fit indices. I illustrate the gsemgof command through multilevel MA applied to two-level Methadone Maintenance Treatment data.

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Estimating Standardized Effect Sizes for Two- and Three-Level Partially Nested Data

Multivariate Behavioral Research ◽

10.1080/00273171.2016.1231606 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 1-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mark H. C. Lai ◽

Oi-man Kwok

Keyword(s):

Effect Sizes ◽

Nested Data ◽

Standardized Effect Sizes

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Models for Longitudinal and Nested Data

Handbook of Regression Analysis With Applications in R - Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics ◽

10.1002/9781119392491.ch13 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 255-276

Keyword(s):

Nested Data

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Sleep Behaviors in Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease: Associations With Caregiver Sleep and Affect

Journal of Applied Gerontology ◽

10.1177/0733464820979244 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 073346482097924

Author(s):

Molly A. Mather ◽

Holly B. Laws ◽

Jasmine S. Dixon ◽

Rebecca E. Ready ◽

Anna M. Akerstedt

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Family Caregivers ◽

Daily Diary ◽

Poor Sleep ◽

Multilevel Mediation ◽

Diary Data ◽

Retrospective Reports ◽

Disease Associations ◽

Sleep Behaviors

Poor sleep in persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common stressor for family caregivers. Retrospective reports support associations between sleep disturbance in persons with AD and worse caregiver mood; however, prospective associations between sleep in persons with AD and caregiver outcomes have not been studied. The current study determined associations between affect and sleep of persons with AD and their caregivers using daily diary data. Multilevel mediation models indicated that sleep in persons with AD is linked to caregiver affect; furthermore, these associations are mediated by sleep characteristics in caregivers and affect in persons with AD. Daily fluctuations in sleep behaviors in persons with AD—rather than average values—were most strongly associated with caregiver outcomes. Interventions to improve sleep in persons with AD may decrease their negative affect and improve caregiver mood.

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Metalearning to choose the level of analysis in nested data: A case study on error detection in foreign trade statistics

2015 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) ◽

10.1109/ijcnn.2015.7280656 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Nozari Zarmehri ◽

Carlos Soares

Keyword(s):

Foreign Trade ◽

Error Detection ◽

Nested Data ◽

Level Of Analysis

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Validation of schema mappings with nested queries

Computer Science and Information Systems ◽

10.2298/csis120713042r ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 79-104

Author(s):

Guillem Rull ◽

Carles Farré ◽

Ernest Teniente ◽

Toni Urpí

Keyword(s):

Integrity Constraints ◽

Automatic Process ◽

Document Type ◽

Relational Schemas ◽

Schema Mappings ◽

Nested Data ◽

Nested Queries ◽

The Given ◽

Human Designer ◽

The Web

With the emergence of the Web and the wide use of XML for representing data, the ability to map not only flat relational but also nested data has become crucial. The design of schema mappings is a semi-automatic process. A human designer is needed to guide the process, choose among mapping candidates, and successively refine the mapping. The designer needs a way to figure out whether the mapping is what was intended. Our approach to mapping validation allows the designer to check whether the mapping satisfies certain desirable properties. In this paper, we focus on the validation of mappings between nested relational schemas, in which the mapping assertions are either inclusions or equalities of nested queries. We focus on the nested relational setting since most XML?s Document Type Definitions (DTDs) can be represented in this model. We perform the validation by reasoning on the schemas and mapping definition. We take into account the integrity constraints defined on both the source and target schema. We consider constraints and mapping?s queries which may contain arithmetic comparisons and negations. This class of mapping scenarios is significantly more expressive than the ones addressed by previous work on nested relational mapping validation. We encode the given mapping scenario into a single flat database schema, so we can take advantage of our previous work on validating flat relational mappings, and reformulate each desirable property check as a query satisfiability problem.

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