Comparing (Ordinary) Multilevel Modeling with Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling

1. Comparing (Ordinary) Multilevel Modeling with Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling Michael Braun GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim

2. Overview • The substantive research question • Two statistical models • Results • Conclusions

3. The substantive research question • anomalies found for item on civil disobedience in ISSP 2004 battery on rights in a democracy • in one group of countries, values for civil disobedience markedly lower than for index of rights in a democracy, excluding this item • suspicion this might be related to satisfaction with democracy (then civil disobedience not necessary or even harmful)

4. There are different opinions about people’s rights in a democracy. On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 is not at all important and 7 is very important, how important is it … a. that all citizens have an adequate standard of living b. that government authorities respect and protect the rights of minorities c. that government authorities treat everybody equally regardless of their position in society d. that politicians take into account the views of citizens before making decisions e. that people be given more opportunities to participate in public decision-making f. that citizens may engage in acts of civil disobedience when they oppose government actions

5. Civil disobedience item vs. index (items a-e)

6. Two statistical models • (Ordinary) 3-level Multilevel Modeling • Multilevel Structural Equation Model (ML-SEM) allowing for direct effects of satisfaction with democracy as covariate on items, given the common factor

7. 3-level multilevel model • dependent variable: evaluation of any of the six items on rights in a democracy. • that is: in addition to respondent and country level, there is an item level, which constitutes the lowest level.

8. 3-level multilevel model Country 1 Country 2 … Respondent 1 Respondent 2 … Respondent 1 Respondent 2 … Standard ofliving Rightsofminorities Equalityoftreatment Respon-siveness Participa-tion Civildis-obedience

9. 3-level multilevel model The following variables are included : • Indicators for the second to sixth item (main effects on the item level) • Satisfaction with democracy both on the individual and on the country level (main effects on the individual and country level, respectively) • Interactions of the indicators for the second to sixth item with satisfaction with democracy – both on the individual and country level (cross-level interactions)

10. 3-level multilevel model

11. 3-level multilevel model

12. 3-level multilevel model

13. 3-level multilevel model Main results: • [from model with only item identifiers:]Civil disobedience has high item difficulty. • The higher satisfaction with democracy on the individual level the higher the support for rights in democracy in general. • The higher satisfaction with democracy on the country level the lower the support for rights in democracy in general (borderline effect).

14. 3-level multilevel model • The higher satisfaction with democracy on the individual level the lower agreement with civil disobedience. • The higher satisfaction with democracy on the country level the lower agreement with civil disobedience.

15. Multilevel SEM The following variables and relationships are included : • the six indicators as measures of common factors on the individual and on the country level • regressions of the factors (on both the individual and on the country level) on satisfaction with democracy on the individual and country level, respectively

16. Multilevel SEM • regressions of the second to sixth indicator of the common factors on satisfaction with democracy both on the individual and on the country level

17. Multilevel SEM Rights -0.06 1.0* 1.29* 0.89* 0.66* 0.60* 0.18 Standard liv. R. minorities Equalityof t. Responsiv. Participation Civildisobed. 0.05 -0.00 -0.00 -0.09* -0.49* Between level Satisfaction d. Within level Rights 0.02 1.0* 1.18* 1.13* 1.17* 1.20* 0.89* Standard liv. R. minorities Equalityof t. Responsiveness Participation Civildisobedience 0.01 0.01* -0.02* -0.03* -0.07* Satisfaction d.

18. Multilevel SEM • loading of civil disobedience on the factors suspicious, particularly on the country level • regression of the common factors on the individual and the country level not significant • small negative direct effect of satisfaction with democracy on civil disobedience (given the common factor) on the individual and stronger negative direct effect on the country level

19. Conclusions • conclusions similar with regard to mean of civil disobedience, with regard to interaction with satisfaction with democracy • loading of civil disobedience on the individual level not really suspicious in multilevel CFA • positive effect of satisfaction with democracy on the individual and negative on the country level on attitudes towards rights in a democracy not significant in multilevel CFA

20. Conclusions Question: Which modeling strategy is best?

21. Thank you!