Multilevel Analysis for Applied Research: It's Just Regression! (Methodology In The Social Sciences)

385 Pages·2007·3.61 MB·English

by  Robert Bickel

Multilevel Analysis for Applied Research
Methodology in the Social Sciences
David A. Kenny, Series Editor
Thisseriesprovidesappliedresearchersandstudentswithanalysisandresearchdesignbooksthat
emphasize the use of methods to answer research questions. Rather than emphasizing statistical
theory,eachvolumeintheseriesillustrateswhenatechniqueshould(andshouldnot)beusedand
howtheoutputfromavailablesoftwareprogramsshould(andshouldnot)beinterpreted. Common
pitfalls as well as areas of further development are clearly articulated.
SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF TIME-SERIES DATA
RebeccaM.Warner
A PRIMER ON REGRESSION ARTIFACTS
DonaldT.CampbellandDavidA.Kenny
REGRESSION ANALYSIS FOR CATEGORICAL MODERATORS
HermanAguinis
HOW TO CONDUCT BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH OVER THE INTERNET:
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO HTML AND CGI/PERL
R.ChrisFraley
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING
Second Edition
RexB.Kline
CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS FOR APPLIED RESEARCH
TimothyA.Brown
DYADIC DATA ANALYSIS
DavidA.Kenny,DeborahA.Kashy,andWilliamL.Cook
MISSING DATA: A GENTLE INTRODUCTION
PatrickE.McKnight,KatherineM.McKnight,SourayaSidani,
andAurelioJoséFigueredo
MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS FOR APPLIED RESEARCH: IT’S JUST REGRESSION!
RobertBickel
Multilevel Analysis
for Applied Research
It’s Just Regression!
Robert Bickel
SERIES EDITOR’S NOTE by David A. Kenny
THE GUILFORD PRESS
New York London
©2007 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
www.guilford.com
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bickel, Robert.
Multilevel analysis for applied research : it’s just regression! / Robert Bickel.
p. cm. — (Methodology in the social sciences)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59385-191-0 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59385-191-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59385-429-4 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-59385-429-3 (hardcover: alk. paper)
1. Social sciences—Research—Mathematical models. 2. Multilevel models
(Statistics) 3. Regression analysis. I. Title.
H61.25.B53 2007
001.4′22—dc22
2006103283
To Tanya, Molly, Byll, Sid, Lady, and Buffy,
my best friends for many years

AAbboouutt tthhee AAuutthhoorr
About the Author
RobertBickel,PhD,isProfessorofAdvancedEducationalStudiesatMarshallUniversity
inHuntington,WestVirginia,whereheteachesresearchmethods,appliedstatistics,and
the sociology of education. His publications have dealt with a broad range of issues,
including high school completion, teen pregnancy, crime on school property, correlates
ofschoolsize,neighborhoodeffectsonschoolachievement,andtheconsequencesofthe
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 for poor rural schools. Before joining the faculty at
MarshallUniversity,Dr.Bickelspent15yearsasaprogramevaluatorandpolicyanalyst,
working in a variety of state and local agencies.
vii

SSeerriieess EEddiittoorr’’ss NNoottee
Series Editor’s Note
Social science data are typically multilevel: Children are in classrooms, workers are in
departments or organizations, and people live in neighborhoods. Even laboratory data
are often multilevel in that the unit, whether it is a person or a Norwegian rat, is very
oftenmeasuredovertime,creatingthelevelsoftimeandunit.Despitethenearlyuniver-
salpresenceofmultileveldata,dataanalysismethodshavehistoricallyfocusedonasin-
gle level, usually the individual. The reasons for such a focus are many. Some are
practical:Single-levelmodelsaremuchsimplerthanmultilevelmodels.Somearephilo-
sophical: Western culture focuses so much on the individual that higher-level units
recede to the background. Whatever the reasons, single-level data analysis tools have
dominatedsocialresearch,whichisironicinthatsocialscienceisinherentlymultilevel.
The days of data analysis being limited to a single level are dwindling. Multilevel
analysis has dramatically burst on the scene, and we now have the statistical tools to
study phenomena at multiple levels. However, many researchers think that they cannot
conduct such analyses because they are too complicated and they require specialized,
expensivesoftware.Fortunately,asthisbookshows,bothofthesebeliefsaremistaken.
First, multilevel analysis is not all that complex, as conveyed in the subtitle of the
book: “It’s Just Regression.” If the reader understands multiple regression, the funda-
mentalstatisticalmodelinthesocialsciences,itisarelativelysimplesteptolearnabout
multilevel analysis. Typically, books on multilevel analysis emphasize how it is different
fromstandardmethodsofanalysis.Thisbookbuildsontheresearcher’spriorknowledge
andshowshowmultilevelanalysisisanextensionofmultipleregression.Infact,learn-
ing multilevel analysis should help one better understand regression. The focus is usu-
allyonthecoefficientsinregression—whatiscalledthe“fixedpiece”inmultilevelanal-
ysis.Howeverthereisalsothe“randompiece,”whichistheerrorvariance.Inmultilevel
analysis, there are multiple random effects.
Second, multilevel analysis need not require specialized software. Certainly excel-
lent pieces of stand-alone, expensive software that can conduct multilevel analysis are
ix