Recursive Path Model Research Articles

Teachers’ adaptations to COVID-19: perceived preparedness for distance education, frequency of teacher-student contact, and resources in ICT

ABSTRACT The post-COVID The Great Online Transition requires more support for teaching with information and communications technology (ICT) than ever. The present study investigated teachers’ psychological (perceived preparedness for distance education) and behavioural (frequency of teacher – student contact) adaptations to distance education in relation to job (training, collaboration, and equipment) and personal (self-efficacy) resources in the area of ICT during the first wave of school closings in 2020. We surveyed 1103 teachers in German-speaking regions via newsletters and X (formerly Twitter). Results from the recursive path model showed that all job resources were positively associated with teachers’ perceived preparedness, but the actual frequency of contact was only significantly related to ICT collaboration. Lastly, ICT self-efficacy mediated the associations between job resources and teachers’ adaptations. Our findings highlighted policymaking and school administration applications in which focus should be placed on fostering ICT resources, particularly collaboration.

New lights on the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model

New lights on the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model

Comparison of Sorority and non-Sorority Women: Risks for Different Sexual Assault Types

ABSTRACT Though rates of sexual assault are high among college women, some studies find even greater prevalence rates among women who are sorority members. This study examined the association between familial risk factors (e.g., child physical abuse), PTSD symptoms, and proximal risk factors (e.g., sexual risk behavior) with three sexual assault types (i.e., coercive, incapacitated by alcohol or drugs, and physically forced) among sorority and non-sorority women at a large Midwestern university. Participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey that included measures of different sexual assault types, childhood maltreatment, parental rejection, PTSD symptoms, and sexual and substance use behaviors. A fully recursive path model was estimated to examine the pathways to three different sexual assault types. Results revealed that sorority women experienced coercive and incapacitated sexual assault more so than non-sorority women though there was no significant difference for physically forced sexual assault. Sorority women also reported engaging in more sexual risk behaviors, which was in turn, associated with all three sexual assault types. Sorority women also reported heavier alcohol use, which in turn, was positively associated with coercive and incapacitated sexual assault. These findings have implications for prevention among college undergraduate women.

Determinants of Length of Stay after Neonatal Cardiac Surgery Using Path Analysis.

After neonatal cardiac surgery, families, and the health care team strive for exclusive oral feedings before hospital discharge. With the hypothesis that exclusive oral feedings would reduce the length of stay (LOS), a multidimensional path analysis was used to examine a cross-section of 280 neonates from 2009 to 2013. Buttigieg, Abela, and Pace's theoretical framework of structural and process-related determinants of LOS was modeled with hypothesis-driven correlation and directionality. The recursive path model had a good global and local fit with outcome variances of 26% for exclusive oral feeding and LOS. In the full cohort and model groups (single and biventricular), when controlling for covariances: sepsis, birth distance, necrotizing enterocolitis, genetic differences, specialty consults, the age at which neonatal cardiac surgery occurred (β = .23, p ≤ .001) and the duration of postoperative intubation (β = .47, p ≤ .001) more significantly influenced the LOS than intermediate mediation of exclusive oral feedings at discharge.

Generalizing the properties of Finite Iterative Method for the Computation of the Covariance Matrix Implied by a Recursive Path Model

In this paper, we generalize the properties of the correlation matrix implied bya recursive path model using the Finite Iterative Method into the covariance case wherevariables are no more supposed to be standardized. We demonstrate that the implied co-variance matrix computed using the Finite Iterative Method is affine with respect to themodel parameters. Moreover, many other properties derive from this affinity and will be usedto simplify the computation of the first as well as the second derivatives of the UnweightedLeast Square Function used as an objective function in the estimation of the model param-eters. Illustrated and numerical examples are given to show the advantage of the proposedproperties as an alternative to the classical approximation used to compute the aforemen-tioned derivatives.

Borderline Personality and Dating Violence among College Students: A Path Analysis

ABSTRACT Borderline personality (BP) is an understudied risk factor for dating violence. Based on indications that BP may be an important predictor in non-clinical samples, this study explored theoretically derived pathways in the etiology of college student dating violence (CDV) through BP. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 783 college students from a large Midwestern American university. Participants completed a paper-and-pencil survey that included measures of CDV, childhood maltreatment, maternal relationship quality, attachment insecurity and BP. A fully recursive path model was estimated using the maximum likelihood estimator in Mplus 7.4 to simultaneously examine the pathways to CDV perpetration and victimization. One quarter of the sampled college students reported perpetrating and/or experiencing dating violence in the year prior to the study, with a large proportion of these participants (85%) indicating that they were both perpetrators and victims. BP was positively associated with both CDV perpetration (β = .17; p ≤ .01) and victimization (β = .20; p ≤ .01). Results showed that a lower quality of relationship with one’s mother while growing up was strongly associated with the risk of CDV through developmental pathways involving attachment insecurity and BP. While these findings would not be surprising in a clinical sample of batterers, they are particularly interesting in the context of a non-clinical, generally well-adjusted sample of college students that typically involve less severe forms of situational couple violence. Future research on the etiology of situational couple violence, including CDV, should consider the role of BP and its antecedents.

Recursive Path Model for Health Literacy: The Effect of Social Support and Geographical Residence.

Background: The public health relevance of health literacy is highlighted by the fact that its higher levels can improve health outcomes and reduce health inequities. In order to design effective interventions for improving health literacy, the relationship between health literacy and other factors such as sociodemographic variables, subjective health and social support must be understood.Objective: Our aim was to test a socioecological model of the determinants of health literacy with a special focus on the effect of residence. Our study investigated geographical differences regarding the levels of health literacy and its determinants as this was not investigated before in European nationwide surveys.Methods: Data was collected by a polling company in a sample (n = 1,200) of the Hungarian adult population nationally representative by age, gender, and permanent residence in 2019 January. The questionnaire included items on sociodemographic data, subjective well-being, social support, and two health literacy scales. A recursive path model was used to outline the mediating effect of social support between sociodemographic variables and health literacy where both direct and indirect effects of the explanatory variables and multiple relationships among the variables were analyzed simultaneously. Multiple-group analysis was applied to the three pre-set categories of permanent residence (capital city, urban and rural).Results: There was no statistically significant difference by residence regarding levels of health literacy. Social support and educational attainment were the most important determinants of health literacy after adjusting for the effect of other sociodemographic variables. However, the magnitude of effect of social support and educational attainment is different between types of settlements, the strongest being in rural areas.Conclusion: Social support seems to mediate the effect of socioeconomic position on health literacy which could be taken into account when designing interventions to improve health literacy, especially in rural areas. Further studies would be needed especially in rural communities to see whether improvement of social support could be utilized in projects to increase the level of health literacy.

Properties of the Correlation Matrix Implied by a Recursive Path Model using the Finite Iterative Method

The present paper announces and demonstrates some useful properties of the impliedcorrelation matrix built by the Finite Iterative Method (Elhadri and Hanafi,2015, 2016; Elhadri et al., 2019) The most important property is that the impliedcorrelation matrix is affine for each of its parameters. In other words, the firstderivative with respect to each parameter does not depend on this parameter. Moreover,two properties affirm that the first and the second derivatives can be builtiteratively using the previous property. The final property shows that the secondderivatives with respect to every pair ofparameters in the same structural equationare null. These properties are very important in the sense that they can be used toconstruct a new computational approach to estimate recursive model parameters.These findings can be exploited in the estimation stage implementation, especiallyin the computation of the Newton Raphson algorithm to make the first and the secondderivatives of the discrepancy function more explicit and simplistic.

An iterative method for the computation of the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model

In Path Analysis, especially in social sciences studies, many researchers usually assume that errors in the model are uncorrelated with all exogenous variables as well as with each other. These assumptions, in most cases, are not valid in reality and were introduced to facilitate the model estimation. This article establishes a new algorithm for the computation of the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model that overcomes these drawbacks. We compare our algorithm to two other methods used in the literature. The comparison was made mathematically through an illustrated example and numerically with a simulation study. The findings show that, unlike the classical methods, the proposed method gives more accurate results.

İvesi koyunlarında bazı vücut ölçüleri yardımıyla canlı ağırlığın tahmin edilmesinde kullanılabilecek rekursif bir path modeli

Aim of this study was to investigate direct, indirect and total effects of body measurements on live weight in Awassi sheep and to derive prediction equations for estimation of the live weight. Live weight, head length, body length, withers height, chest depth, chest width and rump height measurements of 270 Awassi sheep at the age of 2-4 years raised at a private farm in Eskişehir Province, Turkey was used. A recursive path model was established to estimate the live weight of the Awassi sheep using these body measurements. Results showed that there was a significant indirect effect of withers height, rump height and body length and significant direct effect of chest depth, chest width and head length on live weight. The strongest predictor of live weight was chest depth, followed by chest width and head length. In conclusion, the equations given in this study could serve as a practical tool to predict the live weight of Awassi sheep.

Influence level of building maintenance variables to construction reliability in islamic senior high school

An Islamic Senior High School as educational institution is supported by some facilities. School building as a physical facility has an important role in supporting learning activities. This study aims to determine the influence level of variable maintenance of Islamic Senior High School building. The method is used to know the influence level by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The mathematical equation used is the recursive path model to evaluate the data from respondents who answer the questioner. The location research is building class in Islamic Senior High School Al-Rifaie Malang Regency. The analysis of influence level consider the user perception include management officer, teacher and student. The level of perception analyzed is the level of user satisfaction with the maintenance quality of building components. The research variables include structural and architectural components as exogenous manifest variable, maintenance quality as moderator variable, and construction reliability as endogenous manifest variable. The result of analysis shows that structural and architectural components variables have positive influence to maintenance quality. The three variables of structural components, architectural components, and maintenance quality have a positive influence to the construction reliability.

Youth Antecedents to News Media Consumption

Intergenerational panel data are used to test a model of youth news socialization. We hypothesize that observing parent news reading and participating in family news discussions have concurrent effects on youth news use, ultimately resulting in a propensity for news consumption that persists into adulthood. Results from a recursive path model demonstrate parent communication variables have direct and indirect effects on frequency of youth news use. Frequency of youth news use, in turn, predicts news use among the same respondents 7 years later. We also find a latent, lagged effect of parent news reading on their kids’ long-term news use.

The finite iterative method for calculating the correlation matrix implied by a recursive path model

The computation of the implied correlation matrix using a recursive structural equation model without latent variables Path Analysis is a crucial step. This can be made by the said Joreskog' method which requires matrix inversion. This paper presents an alternative method of calculation. The originality of this new method is that it is based on direct calculations for obtaining the explicit expression of the implied correlation matrix in terms of model parameters whatever the complexity of the model.

Unequal academic achievement in high school: the mediating roles of concerted cultivation and close friends

Building from the classic Wisconsin model of status attainment, this study examines whether a specific style of parenting, concerted cultivation, and a close friend’s school-related attitudes and behaviors mediate the relationship between a family’s socioeconomic status and their child’s academic achievement in the United States. Using a recursive path model on nationally representative panel data of high school students (N = 10,350), the results confirm a direct association between socioeconomic status and concerted cultivation. In addition, concerted cultivation and close friends are shown to mediate the relationship between a family’s socioeconomic status and their child’s academic achievement.

Relationship Between Organizational Commitment and Organisational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) At Goverment-Owned Corporation Companies

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is important to solve the complexity of organizational problems in public sector, including BUMN. However, it still has different explanation about factors which have influence to OCB. This study aims to examine the relationship between organizational commitment and OCB atPT Telkom Makassar. Used approach in this research is quantitative by survey methods, through a number of 176 employees from 6 divisions at this BUMN organization by giving response to OCB and their commitment to the organization. Data is collected by questionnaire. Data analysis applies statistical analysis of recursive path model using SPSS version 17.0. Findings of this research reveals that success rate of an organization is also determined by on how organization stimulates their employees upon the organization itself. It can be concluded that organizational commitment positively and significantly relates to OCB at PT Telkom Makassar. Hence, it is suggested that for the forthcoming studies, researcher needs to wield qualitative approach to gather a much deeper information in order to explain the phenomenon.

Recursive Path Models When Both Predictor and Response Variables are Categorical

Recursive path analysis is a useful tool for inference on a sequence of three or more response variables in which the causal effects of variables, if any, are in one direction. The primary objective in such analysis is to decompose the total effect of each variable into its direct and indirect components. Methods for recursive analysis of a chain of continuous variables are well developed but there is a lack of uniform methodology when the variables are categorical. In this paper we propose an approach for categorical response variables that is based on generalized linear models. The proposed method has the flexibility of allowing the use of common categorical data models such as the Poisson, Probit and logistic regression models, along with definitions of direct and indirect effects in terms of relative risks and odds ratios. The method can be implemented easily using standard statistical software such as the GENMOD procedure of SAS. This proposed method is illustrated using real data.

Effects of complementary and alternative medicine use on hopelessness in ovarian cancer patients

9598 Background: Hopelessness is a significant factor affecting the quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients (pts). Despite the millions of dollars spent annually on Complementary and Alternative Medicine use (CAM) there is little research demonstrating any beneficial effect of CAM on QOL and hope despite the fact that these are reasons patients cite for using CAM. Methods: A secondary dataset (n=130 pts) was concatenated from subsets of 2 QOL studies of ovarian cancer pts. A recursive path model was estimated to quantify the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of recurrence and age (>55 yrs) on spirituality (FACT Spirituality Scale), # of CAM use (special diet, psychotherapy, movement, physical therapies, mind/body, spiritual practices, vitamins, herbs) and on feelings of hopelessness (Beck’s Hopelessness Scale). Age and recurrence were also hypothesized to affect hopelessness indirectly through spirituality, which in turn should raise CAM use and reduce hopelessness. Results: Pt median age was 55, range 34–87 years. 73 had recurrent disease (RD). 57 were survivors > 3 years from diagnosis without RD. 97% of all pts reported use of CAM however CAM had only a minimal positive, insignificant effect on hopelessness controlling for other factors. RD directly increased hopelessness (path coefficient [PC] 0.32, p<0.001) which was significantly offset due to heightened spirituality by some RD pts (PC 0.24, p<0.01) that reduced hopelessness (PC −0.56, p<0.001). Older pts were likely to use fewer CAMs (PC −0.26, p<0.01) but were not more spiritual or more hopeful, controlling for RD. A continuous age variable was positively correlated with RD implying another path of age to hopelessness. Conclusions: A significant causal relationship between CAM use and hopelessness was not established. Feelings of hopelessness, natural in pts with RD, were significantly offset through their spirituality. Increasing spirituality, especially among RD pts may significantly improve feelings of hopefulness. Future research should explore direct effects of specific CAM therapies, excluding spiritual practices, on QOL and hope, the interactive relationship between spirituality and hopefulness and continuous effects of age on both recurrence and hope. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Relationships between Factors Affecting Contraception and Fertility in Bangladesh

Using the data derived from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey, the 1993-94 and 1996-97 Bangladesh Demographic and Health surveys, this study attempts to find the relationships between the factors affecting contraception and fertility among currently married women by using a linear recursive path model which provides direct and indirect relationships between the variables. The results suggest that women's status had a significant negative effect on childbearing and it had a significant positive effect on the use of contraception. It was also observed that higher incidence of child mortality led to a higher level of fertility.

Testing Recursive Path Models With Correlated Errors Using D-Separation

This article shows how to extend the inferential test of Shipley (2000b), which is applicable to recursive path models without correlated errors (a directed acyclic graph [DAG] model), to a class of recursive path models that include correlated errors (a semi-Markov model). The path model is first converted to a partial ancestral graph (PAG) and then, for PAGs that do not require latent variables, an inducing path DAG is obtained that is equivalent in its conditional independence relations to the original path model. The null probabilities of the k tests of independence that are implied by this DAG are combined using Fisher's test statistic C = -2ΣLn(pi), which is distributed as a chi-square variate with 2k degrees of freedom.

The relationship of perceived self-efficacy to quality of life in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

From a biomedical perspective, variations in the quality of life of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients may be attributed to changes in pulmonary function; thus, an increase in lung function should be correlated with an increased score on a health-related quality-of-life measure. However, inconsistent results regarding correlations between various measures of pulmonary function and quality of life have been reported in the literature. The authors evaluated a social cognitive model of quality of life among persons with COPD by analyzing relationships among biomedical measures, self-efficacy measures, and quality-of-life measures in a recursive path model. Path analysis results indicated that the association of pulmonary function and symptoms with quality of life was mediated by perceived self-efficacy for functional activities.