Premium
Confirmatory path analysis in a generalized multilevel context
Author(s) -
Shipley Bill
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/08-1034.1
Subject(s) - path analysis (statistics) , generalization , multivariate statistics , hierarchy , context (archaeology) , multilevel model , statistics , path (computing) , statistical hypothesis testing , test (biology) , hierarchical database model , mathematics , econometrics , computer science , ecology , geography , data mining , biology , mathematical analysis , archaeology , economics , market economy , programming language
This paper describes how to test, and potentially falsify, a multivariate causal hypothesis involving only observed variables (i.e., a path analysis) when the data have a hierarchical or multilevel structure, when different variables are potentially defined at different levels of such a hierarchy, and when different variables have different sampling distributions. The test is a generalization of Shipley's d‐sep test and can be conducted using standard statistical programs capable of fitting generalized mixed models.