Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2025-12-27DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2025.100225
Chendong Li , Depeng Jiang , Philip St John , Robert Tate
Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) is used to identify trajectories but suffers from attrition bias when dropout is non-random. We evaluate an extended GBTM that models attrition as a latent-class process. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we compare the extended model with conventional GBTM across trajectory separation and attrition mechanisms, and test a parsimonious version with a constant dropout rate within classes.
Results
Conventional GBTM is adequate for separated trajectories but biased when they overlap and attrition is non-random. The extended GBTM remains unbiased, as shown in frailty data from the Manitoba Follow-up Study. These findings suggest that modeling attrition improves robustness and that the parsimonious extension remains reliable under complex dropout processes.
{"title":"Group-based trajectory modeling under non-random attrition: A sensitivity analysis and application to frailty trajectories","authors":"Chendong Li , Depeng Jiang , Philip St John , Robert Tate","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100225","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100225","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) is used to identify trajectories but suffers from attrition bias when dropout is non-random. We evaluate an extended GBTM that models attrition as a latent-class process. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we compare the extended model with conventional GBTM across trajectory separation and attrition mechanisms, and test a parsimonious version with a constant dropout rate within classes.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Conventional GBTM is adequate for separated trajectories but biased when they overlap and attrition is non-random. The extended GBTM remains unbiased, as shown in frailty data from the Manitoba Follow-up Study. These findings suggest that modeling attrition improves robustness and that the parsimonious extension remains reliable under complex dropout processes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145926975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-02-11DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100235
Katie Graham
In this critical commentary I reflect on and explore the practice of anonymising research participants. This commentary is grounded in a quote from a participant within my research who expressed a specific wish to be known. Using this quote, I explore the complexities related to participant anonymity within research, including considerations of paternalism, acknowledgment of contributions, risks of abuse, and understanding of research outputs. I present participant anonymity as neither good nor bad, but as complex. I call for a shift in practice related to participant anonymity, from an assumed norm to a considered research practice. I conclude this commentary with some reflective prompts to facilitate this consideration.
{"title":"“It's important to me to be known”: A critical commentary calling for anonymity to be a considered research practice","authors":"Katie Graham","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100235","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100235","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this critical commentary I reflect on and explore the practice of anonymising research participants. This commentary is grounded in a quote from a participant within my research who expressed a specific wish to be known. Using this quote, I explore the complexities related to participant anonymity within research, including considerations of paternalism, acknowledgment of contributions, risks of abuse, and understanding of research outputs. I present participant anonymity as neither good nor bad, but as complex. I call for a shift in practice related to participant anonymity, from an assumed norm to a considered research practice. I conclude this commentary with some reflective prompts to facilitate this consideration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100235"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-02-02DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100233
Trut Thuy Pham , Thanh Thao Le
Why read this, and what do you get? This manifesto names Writing-With as a stance for scholarly writing that treats analysis and writing as co-moving, less a sequence than a recursive relation. We argue that staying with texts through returns can slow the rush to finality, soften mastery, and cultivate relational accountability in how we read, cite, and craft claims. Grounded in our collaborative work with university teachers in Vietnamese higher education, we offer four refusals (of speed, separation, fixity, and seamless mastery) and four offerings (depth without distance, co-thinking, saturation-as-opening, and writing-as-relation).
{"title":"Writing-With: A manifesto for reflective entanglement","authors":"Trut Thuy Pham , Thanh Thao Le","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100233","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100233","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Why read this, and what do you get? This manifesto names <em>Writing-With</em> as a stance for scholarly writing that treats analysis and writing as co-moving, less a sequence than a recursive relation. We argue that staying with texts through returns can slow the rush to finality, soften mastery, and cultivate relational accountability in how we read, cite, and craft claims. Grounded in our collaborative work with university teachers in Vietnamese higher education, we offer four refusals (of speed, separation, fixity, and seamless mastery) and four offerings (depth without distance, co-thinking, saturation-as-opening, and writing-as-relation).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100233"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2025-12-27DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2025.100224
Ke-Hai Yuan , Yiwei Wang , Hongyun Liu
Mediation analysis plays an important role in understanding causal processes in social and behavioral sciences. Proper measures of the size of a mediated effect are central to advancing the understanding of the role of mediation/intervention in any study. Many measures of effect size (ES) have been proposed in mediation analysis. This article examines the goodness of these measures in three aspects: (1) content validity, (2) ES-consistency, and (3) range and distribution across independent conditions of permissible parameter values. In addition, by differentiating the role of the mediator from that of the predictor in accounting for the variance of the outcome variable, a new -square measure is proposed to truthfully reflect the percentage of variance being mediated. The applicability of the new -square is extended to inconsistent mediation as well. The article aims to build the rationale for choosing proper ES measures, and the results are expected to clarify the pros and cons of new and old ES measures of mediated effects. Logic reasoning and consideration developed in this article can be applied to studying the goodness of ES measures with more complicated mediation processes as well.
{"title":"Effect size measures in mediation analysis: New and Old, What is Good?","authors":"Ke-Hai Yuan , Yiwei Wang , Hongyun Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100224","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100224","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mediation analysis plays an important role in understanding causal processes in social and behavioral sciences. Proper measures of the size of a mediated effect are central to advancing the understanding of the role of mediation/intervention in any study. Many measures of effect size (ES) have been proposed in mediation analysis. This article examines the goodness of these measures in three aspects: (1) content validity, (2) ES-consistency, and (3) range and distribution across independent conditions of permissible parameter values. In addition, by differentiating the role of the mediator from that of the predictor in accounting for the variance of the outcome variable, a new <span><math><mi>R</mi></math></span>-square measure is proposed to truthfully reflect the percentage of variance being mediated. The applicability of the new <span><math><mi>R</mi></math></span>-square is extended to inconsistent mediation as well. The article aims to build the rationale for choosing proper ES measures, and the results are expected to clarify the pros and cons of new and old ES measures of mediated effects. Logic reasoning and consideration developed in this article can be applied to studying the goodness of ES measures with more complicated mediation processes as well.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100224"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145926921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100229
Marta Prandelli
This article examines the ethical complexities of conducting qualitative research in highly medicalised settings involved in the healthcare of people with innate variations of sex characteristics (VSC). Drawing on a series of qualitative studies conducted across different European clinical contexts, I show how institutional norms, epistemic hierarchies, and researcher positionality shape the terrain of ethical practice in environments historically structured by pathologisation, epistemic injustice, and institutional opacity. While procedures such as informed consent and ethical review remain essential, they are insufficient for navigating the relational and affective tensions that characterise VSC-related research.
Integrating insights from feminist science studies, agential realism, epistemic injustice theory, and critical intersex scholarship, I develop response-ability as a situated ethical orientation. Rather than an individualised stance, response-ability foregrounds how researchers and research worlds emerge through intra-action, and how ethical obligations take shape within shifting configurations of credibility, trust, and institutional power.
The analysis is structured around three interconnected vignettes: (1) Rethinking responsibility, which illustrates how ethical authority is negotiated within clinical hierarchies; (2) Consent beyond the form, which explores how participation is shaped by affective trust, institutional risk, and professional vulnerability; and (3) Researcher role and institutional belonging, which traces how legitimacy and access are continually reconfigured across disciplinary, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Together, these reflections argue for an ethics of situated accountability: one that is relational, temporal, and attentive to the uneven distribution of interpretive authority in VSC-related healthcare. The article concludes with a set of practical considerations for researchers working in this field and in other sensitive clinical contexts.
{"title":"Ethics beyond the form: Response-ability in intersex healthcare research","authors":"Marta Prandelli","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100229","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100229","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the ethical complexities of conducting qualitative research in highly medicalised settings involved in the healthcare of people with innate variations of sex characteristics (VSC). Drawing on a series of qualitative studies conducted across different European clinical contexts, I show how institutional norms, epistemic hierarchies, and researcher positionality shape the terrain of ethical practice in environments historically structured by pathologisation, epistemic injustice, and institutional opacity. While procedures such as informed consent and ethical review remain essential, they are insufficient for navigating the relational and affective tensions that characterise VSC-related research.</div><div>Integrating insights from feminist science studies, agential realism, epistemic injustice theory, and critical intersex scholarship, I develop response-ability as a situated ethical orientation. Rather than an individualised stance, response-ability foregrounds how researchers and research worlds emerge through intra-action, and how ethical obligations take shape within shifting configurations of credibility, trust, and institutional power.</div><div>The analysis is structured around three interconnected vignettes: (1) <em>Rethinking responsibility,</em> which illustrates how ethical authority is negotiated within clinical hierarchies; (2) <em>Consent beyond the form</em>, which explores how participation is shaped by affective trust, institutional risk, and professional vulnerability; and (3) <em>Researcher role and institutional belonging</em>, which traces how legitimacy and access are continually reconfigured across disciplinary, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. Together, these reflections argue for an ethics of situated accountability: one that is relational, temporal, and attentive to the uneven distribution of interpretive authority in VSC-related healthcare. The article concludes with a set of practical considerations for researchers working in this field and in other sensitive clinical contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146037732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite the growing call for inclusivity in developmental psychology, there remains a scarcity of methodological guidance. We address this gap through a reflexive case study based on our qualitative research in South African autism schools. The paper explores an educational context, recognising schools as key sites for applying core ideas in developmental psychology (an area significantly neglected in Global South research). By elucidating our research approach within a study focusing on the experiences of predominantly Black participants, we illuminate the importance of ethical research considerations at the intersectionality of autism and race. We ask: How can qualitative approaches be harnessed to ethically represent local knowledge? Through reflecting upon our research that entailed deep immersion in 12 South African pre-school classrooms in three public autism schools, we put forward four principles of inclusive research practices: 1) Making visible positionality in Southern-led collective scholarship, 2) Nourishing respectful collaborative partnerships with Southern organisations, 3) Building trusting relationships, and 4) Engaging in research as co-creation and dialogue. Through this, we explore experiences and tensions with ethics committees across the South African and British contexts. We also address working with historically vulnerable and underrepresented communities, ensuring the sharing of knowledge and materials in a collaborative and culturally sensitive manner. These principles provide a framework to help researchers navigate similar studies in Global South contexts.
{"title":"Qualitative approaches to developmental psychology: negotiating power, ethics, and geographies when researching in South African schools for autistic children","authors":"Stephanie Katharina Nowack , Nidhi Singal , Jenny Louise Gibson , John-Joe Dawson-Squibb","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100226","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100226","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite the growing call for inclusivity in developmental psychology, there remains a scarcity of methodological guidance. We address this gap through a reflexive case study based on our qualitative research in South African autism schools. The paper explores an educational context, recognising schools as key sites for applying core ideas in developmental psychology (an area significantly neglected in Global South research). By elucidating our research approach within a study focusing on the experiences of predominantly Black participants, we illuminate the importance of ethical research considerations at the intersectionality of autism and race. We ask: How can qualitative approaches be harnessed to ethically represent local knowledge? Through reflecting upon our research that entailed deep immersion in 12 South African pre-school classrooms in three public autism schools, we put forward four principles of inclusive research practices: 1) Making visible positionality in Southern-led collective scholarship, 2) Nourishing respectful collaborative partnerships with Southern organisations, 3) Building trusting relationships, and 4) Engaging in research as co-creation and dialogue. Through this, we explore experiences and tensions with ethics committees across the South African and British contexts. We also address working with historically vulnerable and underrepresented communities, ensuring the sharing of knowledge and materials in a collaborative and culturally sensitive manner. These principles provide a framework to help researchers navigate similar studies in Global South contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2025.100222
Peggy Shannon-Baker , Analay Perez , Matthew T. McCrudden , Sergi Fàbregues
{"title":"Editorial: Applying transformative approaches in mixed methods research in psychology","authors":"Peggy Shannon-Baker , Analay Perez , Matthew T. McCrudden , Sergi Fàbregues","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100222","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2025.100222","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100222"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145753688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100228
Laura Ibrayeva , Manat Sergazina , Anara Burambayeva , Aiida Kulsary , Daniel Hernández-Torrano
This collaborative ethnographic study explores the dynamics of conducting research with young children focusing on data collection at kindergartens, where working with vulnerable populations requires distinct ethical and methodological adaptations. It addresses the adjustments necessary to maintain research integrity while adapting to practical obstacles and cultural contexts. Drawing on insights from a study examining young children's positive experiences and well-being in Kazakhstan, the article presents data gathered from (1) individual reflections, (2) collaborative face-to-face reflection session, (3) autoethnographic individual journal entries capturing co-author-coparticipants’ emotions and feelings related to data collection, and (4) informal WhatsApp discussions among researchers after data collection sessions. Adopting Gibbs' (1988) reflective writing model, this study captures the research team's evolving process, the challenges they confronted, and the lessons they learned. Our main focus is on synthesizing our experiences to offer valuable insights and practical guidance to researchers entering similar contexts where empirical research involving human participants, particularly young children, is relatively new and emerging. The study examines how the researchers describe their experiences in early childhood educational settings and emphasizes the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to enhance data collection and ethics practices. These insights contribute to early childhood research and offer broader guidance for culturally responsive research practices involving human participants in similar emerging contexts.
{"title":"How to conduct ethical research with young children: Insights from a reflexive collaborative autoethnography","authors":"Laura Ibrayeva , Manat Sergazina , Anara Burambayeva , Aiida Kulsary , Daniel Hernández-Torrano","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100228","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100228","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This collaborative ethnographic study explores the dynamics of conducting research with young children focusing on data collection at kindergartens, where working with vulnerable populations requires distinct ethical and methodological adaptations. It addresses the adjustments necessary to maintain research integrity while adapting to practical obstacles and cultural contexts. Drawing on insights from a study examining young children's positive experiences and well-being in Kazakhstan, the article presents data gathered from (1) individual reflections, (2) collaborative face-to-face reflection session, (3) autoethnographic individual journal entries capturing co-author-coparticipants’ emotions and feelings related to data collection, and (4) informal WhatsApp discussions among researchers after data collection sessions. Adopting Gibbs' (1988) reflective writing model, this study captures the research team's evolving process, the challenges they confronted, and the lessons they learned. Our main focus is on synthesizing our experiences to offer valuable insights and practical guidance to researchers entering similar contexts where empirical research involving human participants, particularly young children, is relatively new and emerging. The study examines how the researchers describe their experiences in early childhood educational settings and emphasizes the importance of culturally sensitive approaches to enhance data collection and ethics practices. These insights contribute to early childhood research and offer broader guidance for culturally responsive research practices involving human participants in similar emerging contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146078117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-01-21DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100230
Julia Doornbos , Bettina van Hoven
Various scholars have discussed how ‘sensitive research’ or working with ‘vulnerable populations’ raises significant ethical considerations. While a feminist ethics of care can ensure a more respectful approach to scientific inquiry, it may also disempower participants through paternalistic research practices. Illustrated by actual research situations, we explore specific instances of practising care in our participatory research with people with disabilities in the Netherlands. By drawing on our personal reflections and those of the co-researchers with disabilities, we aim to contribute to rethinking ethics of care in participatory research and in working with people with disabilities or other ‘vulnerable populations’. We argue that similar research with both vulnerabilities and opportunities for enabling research practices requires care-full and slow methodologies. Within such slow research, a collective interdependence and responsibility can be attended to, surpassing solely procedural forms of research ethics and neoliberal logics.
{"title":"“Research is temporary, our experiences are forever”: rethinking ethics of care in participatory research with people with disabilities","authors":"Julia Doornbos , Bettina van Hoven","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100230","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100230","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Various scholars have discussed how ‘sensitive research’ or working with ‘vulnerable populations’ raises significant ethical considerations. While a feminist ethics of care can ensure a more respectful approach to scientific inquiry, it may also disempower participants through paternalistic research practices. Illustrated by actual research situations, we explore specific instances of practising care in our participatory research with people with disabilities in the Netherlands. By drawing on our personal reflections and those of the co-researchers with disabilities, we aim to contribute to rethinking ethics of care in participatory research and in working with people with disabilities or other ‘vulnerable populations’. We argue that similar research with both vulnerabilities and opportunities for enabling research practices requires care-full and slow methodologies. Within such slow research, a collective interdependence and responsibility can be attended to, surpassing solely procedural forms of research ethics and neoliberal logics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100230"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1016/j.metip.2026.100231
Peyton D. Perduyn, Yan Zhang, Qi Chen
Although multilevel modeling is widely used, clear guidance on probing higher-order interactions remains scarce. This paper offers a concise, practitioner-friendly walkthrough of post-hoc probing of three-way cross-level interactions in longitudinal three-level MLMs across five leading statistical packages (R, HLM 8, SAS, Stata, and Mplus). Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2011 dataset (∼17,000 students nested within 1900 schools across nine waves), we show, step-by-step, how to compute simple slopes and six slope-difference contrasts for the Time ∗ Approaches-to-Learning ∗ School-Sector interaction in each program. All platforms yield virtually identical estimates; minor deviations in standard errors do not alter statistical conclusions. By collating syntax and interpretation in one place, the paper equips applied researchers to replicate and report rigorous three-way interaction probes irrespective of software choice.
{"title":"Slope-difference testing of three-way interactions in longitudinal multilevel models across five statistical packages","authors":"Peyton D. Perduyn, Yan Zhang, Qi Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100231","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.metip.2026.100231","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although multilevel modeling is widely used, clear guidance on probing higher-order interactions remains scarce. This paper offers a concise, practitioner-friendly walkthrough of post-hoc probing of three-way cross-level interactions in longitudinal three-level MLMs across five leading statistical packages (R, HLM 8, SAS, Stata, and M<em>plus</em>). Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2011 dataset (∼17,000 students nested within 1900 schools across nine waves), we show, step-by-step, how to compute simple slopes and six slope-difference contrasts for the Time ∗ Approaches-to-Learning ∗ School-Sector interaction in each program. All platforms yield virtually identical estimates; minor deviations in standard errors do not alter statistical conclusions. By collating syntax and interpretation in one place, the paper equips applied researchers to replicate and report rigorous three-way interaction probes irrespective of software choice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93338,"journal":{"name":"Methods in Psychology (Online)","volume":"14 ","pages":"Article 100231"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}