Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) is widely used to test the null hypothesis of equal multivariate means across 2 or more groups. MANOVA rests upon an assumption that error terms are independent of one another, which can be violated if individuals are clustered or nested within groups, such as schools. Ignoring such nesting can result in…

Structured means analysis is a very useful approach for testing hypotheses about population means on latent constructs. In such models, a z test is most commonly used for testing the statistical significance of the relevant parameter estimates or of the differences between parameter estimates, where a z value is computed based on the asymptotic…

Argues that H. W. Marsh and K.-T. Hau (1996) misunderstood parsimony and its role in testing a hypothesis about an incompletely specified model to establish its objective validity. More parsimonious models represent more complete hypotheses having more ways of being tested and confirmed. Marsh and Hau could also have used more parsimonious…