Quinn, J. M., & Wagner, R. K. (2018). Using meta‐analytic structural equation modeling to study developmental change in relations between language and literacy. Child development, 89(6), 1956-1969.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13049
Abstract
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.