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Results for “Structural equation modeling”

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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMed2026

Nitrogen sources and concentrations shape algal odor compounds: Key drivers of β-cyclocitral and β-ionone in water bodies of the lower Yangtze River.

Taste and odor (T&O) compounds derived from cyanobacterial blooms pose escalating threats to freshwater security worldwide, yet the drivers of specific T&O metabolites remain poorly constrained. Here, we investigated the dual effects of nitrogen (N) sources and concentrations on the production of β-cyclocitral and β-ionone, two algal-derived T&O compounds, through integrated field surveys (54 sites across lakes and rivers) in the eutrophic lower Yangtze River, China, and laboratory cultivation of typical cyanobacteria (Microcystis aeruginosa and Pseudanabaena cinerea). Our field data revealed that the concentrations of β-cyclocitral and β-ionone in lakes and rivers were not significantly different, but increased with the trophic level index. Redundancy analysis and Mantel analysis showed that Microcystis and Pseudanabaena were potentially dominant contributors to β-cyclocitral and β-ionone in the water column. Structural equation modeling and variation partitioning analysis showed that enhanced nitrate (NO3--N) significantly promoted the production of these compounds. Laboratory experiments demonstrated that inorganic N (NaNO₃) maximized total T&O yields by promoting algal biomass, whereas organic N (urea and glutamic acid) elevated the T&O production per unit biomass by 1.5- to 9.5-fold. Notably, Pseudanabaena exhibited a 2.3-fold higher β-ionone yield than Microcystis, with greater sensitivity to N concentrations. Our study highlights the critical role of nitrogen pollution, both source and concentration, in the production of T&O compounds by phytoplankton and provides reference data for managing T&O issues in rivers and shallow lakes.

Norisoprenoids↗

PubMed2026

Multi-omics reveal microbial functional traits and antifungal metabolites associated with lower Pseudogymnoascus destructans loads in bat cave soils.

White-nose syndrome, caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), is a major fungal disease threatening hibernating bats. Cave soils can serve as environmental reservoirs for Pd, yet the microbial and biochemical mechanisms underlying naturally low Pd burdens in some cave environments remain poorly understood. Here, we integrated soil microbiome profiling, metagenomics, metabolomics, multi-omics network analysis, and in vitro validation to investigate the ecological and functional basis of differential Pd loads in hibernating bat caves in Northeast China. The three caves shared cold, humid, and weakly acidic microenvironments, but differed significantly in electrical conductivity, soil water content, nutrient availability, and extracellular enzyme activities. Soil microbial communities showed significant inter-cave variation in composition, diversity, and niche breadth, with stochastic processes contributing substantially to community assembly. Environmental variables, particularly pH and Pd load, were important predictors of microbial community structure. Functional analyses revealed that the low-Pd Gezi Cave was enriched in genes associated with organic carbon degradation, nitrogen input and retention, and secondary metabolism. Metabolomic profiling further identified cave-specific metabolite signatures, among which Biochanin A, 4-Hydroxybenzaldehyde, Vanillin, and Arachidonic acid were negatively correlated with Pd loads. Integrated pathway and network analyses showed that differential genes and metabolites jointly mapped to secondary metabolite biosynthesis, aminobenzoate degradation, and flavonoid degradation pathways, forming a microbe-metabolite-functional gene coupling network involving key taxa such as Rhodococcus, Pseudorhodoplanes, and Rhodoplanes. In vitro assays confirmed that 4-Hydroxybenzaldehyde, Coumarin, and Vanillin inhibited Pd growth. Structural equation modelling further indicated that environmental heterogeneity was associated with variation in Pd loads through microbial functional attributes and metabolite profiles. These findings suggest that naturally low-Pd cave soils are associated with coordinated environmental filtering, microbial functional specialization, and antifungal metabolite production, providing mechanistic insight into microbial and biochemical constraints on Pd persistence in cave reservoirs.

Animals↗

PubMed1991

Proximate determinants of child mortality in Liberia.

The study looks at the effects of maternal sociodemographic characteristics and the quality of the environment on child survival through two intervening variables, breast-feeding and prenatal care. A linear structural equation modelling approach was used to examine infant and child survival based on a weighted sample of 5180 Liberian children aged 0-5 years. The findings confirm previous studies, but also reveal complex relationships of the role of education, maternal age and breast-feeding in enhancing child survival.

Breast Feeding↗

PubMed1989

Concurrent validity of GHQ-28 and PSE as measures of change.

Substantial cross-sectional correlations have been reported between the GHQ and PSE (and CIS) total scores. Although necessary, this is not a sufficient condition for assuming good validity of the GHQ as a severity measure in longitudinal and health care evaluation studies. For this purpose the GHQ should also accurately reflect changes in severity over time. To examine their concurrent validity, GHQ and PSE scores were compared, in a three-wave longitudinal study, among 175 new psychiatric out-patients. Using a longitudinal structural equation model that takes measurement error into account, the strength of both the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship between GHQ and PSE were estimated. The GHQ performed remarkably well; changes in severity as defined by PSE-ID and PSE total score were clearly reflected by changes in GHQ scores. The revised scoring method of the GHQ proposed by Goodchild and Duncan-Jones did not yield superior results.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Aging and susceptibility to attitude change.

Two hypotheses about the relation between age and susceptibility to attitude change were tested. The impressionable years hypothesis proposes that individuals are highly susceptible to attitude change during late adolescence and early adulthood and that susceptibility drops precipitously immediately thereafter and remains low throughout the rest of the life cycle. The increasing persistence hypothesis proposes that people become gradually more resistant to change throughout their lives. Structural equation models were applied to data from the 1956-1960, 1972-1976, and 1980 National Election Panel Studies in order to estimate the stability of political attitudes and unreliability in measures of them. The results support the impressionable years hypothesis and disconfirm the increasing persistence hypothesis. A decrease in the over-time consistency of attitude reports among 66- to 83-year-olds was found to be due to increased random measurement error in their reports, not to increased attitude change.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Evidence of differential stability of state and trait anxiety in adults.

This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess the differential longitudinal stabilities of state and trait anxiety. In 1985 and 1987, 227 adult volunteers (ages 22-78) rated themselves on established state and trait questionnaires. In addition, aggregated-state anxiety was measured by self-rated frequency of state anxiety experienced over the previous month. Analysis of split-half subscales from single Trait and State Anxiety scales showed the State Anxiety true score factor to have a significantly lower unstandardized autoregression coefficient (.57 vs. .91), indicating less longitudinal stability. Additional models found longitudinal factor correlations .90, .72, and .66 for Trait, Aggregate-State, and State Anxiety, respectively, further establishing the differential stability of each. There were no significant age differences in longitudinal stability or in within-occasion state-trait factor correlations.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Intergenerational continuity of parental rejection and depressed affect.

Using survey and observational data from a sample of 451 intact families, this study used structural equation modeling to examine the intergenerational continuity of depressed mood and rejecting parenting. The model partially replicated the intergenerational model of Elder, Caspi, and Downey (1986) that indicates a cyclical transmission process by which parents' personality traits affect parent-child interaction, which, in turn, increases the propensity for developmental problems among offspring. The results indicated a pattern of intergenerational transmission of depressed mood through parental rejection of offspring. Multiple reporters and multiple indicators strengthen previous intergenerational findings by reducing some of the method variance biases that have been problematic in prior studies.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

The contribution of personality characteristics to the relationship between social support and perceived physical health.

Although a great deal of research has been conducted on the relationship between social support and physical health, the contribution of personality characteristics to this relationship has rarely been assessed. Structural equation modeling was employed to derive and test a model of the direct and indirect relationships between personality characteristics, social network size, the perceived availability of support, socially supportive behaviors, and perceived physical health with a sample of Pennsylvania adults. Significant paths indicate that individuals who perceive themselves as affiliative and as help seekers and help givers report larger social networks, receive more socially supportive behaviors, and perceive that more support is available to them. The perception that support is available shared a direct relationship with perceived physical health. The utility of including multiple measures of social support and personality characteristics related to receiving support in investigations of the relationship between social support and physical health is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

A multivariate analysis of adolescents' orientations toward physician use.

Health professionals know surprisingly little about the origins of the health beliefs and orientations they often seek to change, and they do not know about when, or if, changes in these orientations are likely to occur. This study is aimed at increasing our understanding of the origins and development of health beliefs and attitudes by focusing on the impact of parents' orientations toward physician utilization (inclination to consult a doctor when experiencing somatic symptoms) on the comparable orientations of their adolescent children. Hypotheses regarding direct parent-adolescent links are examined within a multivariate structural equations model relating demographics, adolescents' interpersonal competencies, and parental variables to adolescents' orientations toward physician utilization. Evidence for the development of these orientations is obtained by comparing influences across two groups of adolescents: 12- to 13-year-olds and 16- to 18-year-olds. Findings indicate that adolescents' orientations toward physician use are associated with those of their parents and that this link is generally stronger and more specific during late adolescence. The model also suggests that these orientations conform to social and cultural variables related to differences in social stratification.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Health, stress, psychological resources, and subjective well-being among older blacks.

This study examines the structural relationships among sociodemographic characteristics, health status, stress, psychological resources, and subjective well-being (SWB) among the Black elderly. A structural equation model of SWB was evaluated with data from the 1979-1980 National Survey of Black Americans. The results revealed that poor subjective health status was predictive of lower levels of personal efficacy and SWB. Stressful life events tended to depress subjective assessments of health and had negative effects on self-esteem and SWB. Marital status and age had positive effects on SWB. Chronic health conditions and other demographic variables, however, had indirect effects on SWB.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1991

Depression and cognitive change among institutionalized aged.

Interrelations between depression (Geriatric Depression Scale) and cognitive impairment (Blessed test) were examined among 201 nursing home and congregate apartment residents in a 2-year, 3-wave study. In structural equations models that controlled autocorrelations and within-occasion correlated residuals, introducing paths from depression to subsequent cognitive status significantly reduced unexplained variance, whereas paths from cognitive status to subsequent depression did not. Subsidiary analyses indicated that the relation of depression to subsequent cognitive status was strongest among persons with borderline (vs. impaired or intact) cognitive status, but only for the first time interval. Discussion addresses explanations for obtained results and implications for monitoring and treating depression among elderly long-term care residents.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1988

Interviewing older adults: validity of self-reports of satisfaction.

Respondents in a personal interview study were asked to evaluate several domains of their lives using several different response scales that included both verbal and pictorial response alternatives. Structural equation models were specified to permit estimation of the validity of these survey measures. Across all of the items, the concept factors explain an average of about one half of the total variance, method factors explain about one tenth of the variance, and the remaining one third or so of the variance is unique to each item. Comparisons of the validity of reports by respondents of different ages indicate that method factors explain almost twice as much of the variance in the responses of older respondents as in those of younger respondents.

Adult↗

PubMed1980

Relation between loneliness and depression: a structural equation analysis.

Research on loneliness has been hampered by its strong association with depression. The two states frequently co-occur, and measures of the two states are substantially correlated. Inability to manipulate experimentally loneliness or depression makes it difficult to untangle the causal influence of one on the other. The combination of longitudinal design and structural equation methodology is proposed as a solution to this general problem. Measures of loneliness and depression were administered to undergraduates at two points 5 weeks apart. Data from 333 subjects were correlated and analyzed under a succession of structural equation models. Results indicated that loneliness and depression were correlated but clearly different constructs; neither was a direct cause of the other, though both probably share some common origins; both were highly stable over to 5-week-period.

Depression↗

PubMed2026

Dissecting pleiotropy between major depressive disorder and physical disease comorbidities.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by substantial comorbidity with medical conditions. To achieve better outcomes for patients with MDD, an improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying pervasive comorbidities is required. Here, to this end, we mapped patterns of pleiotropy by defining four clusters of physical diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic, gastrointestinal and immune) and analyzed their genetic relationships with MDD using genomic structural equation modeling. Three disease clusters exhibited independent associations with MDD and accounted for 47% of MDD h2SNP, with the gastrointestinal disease cluster having the strongest association (β = 0.63, s.e. = 0.05, P = 3.04 × 10-30). In addition, we identified independent loci associated with the shared genetic liability between each disease cluster and MDD, revealing different pleiotropic components. Characterization of these loci revealed previously unidentified associations with MDD and physical disease traits, along with unique biological pathways, drug groups, cell types and genes associated with each disease-MDD cluster. Our findings reveal genetic connections implicating the gut-brain axis as a key mechanism underlying the comorbidity of physical diseases in MDD. This work advances our understanding of MDD by highlighting unique and shared genetic components across different disease systems.

Major Depressive Disorder↗

PubMed1990

The relationship between selected student characteristics and activity patterns in a required high school physical education class.

This study described the activity patterns of students in a high school fitness class and explored the structural relationships between particular student characteristics and their systematically coded exercise behavior. Although percent of time spent jogging was low (18%), with no gains made in cardiovascular fitness, the amount of time spent jogging, the distance covered, and fitness level were all significantly correlated. A LISREL VI computer program was used to test a structural equation model representing the Fishbein Behavioral-Intention Model. In support of the model, results showed the prediction of exercise behavior by attitude and subjective norm was significantly mediated by intention. Although not significant, it is worth noting that subjective norm was found to be the stronger predictor of intention over attitude. Background variables were found to indirectly influence intention through their significant influence on attitude and subjective norm. For this sample of 9th and 10th graders, significant others, particularly their peers and teachers, had a stronger impact on behavior than personal attitudes about activity.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2025

The mediating role of protective factors in relationship between caregiving components and psychosocial adjustment among young carers: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Higher youth caregiving is associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes in young carers; hence a research priority is to investigate protective factors that mitigate the adverse effects of youth caregiving. This systematic review with meta-analysis examined the relationships among youth caregiving components and young carer psychosocial adjustment and protective factors, as well as the mediating role of the protective factors in the relationship between caregiving components and psychosocial adjustment. METHODS: Three electronic databases were searched until April 2024 and 10,244 unique publications were identified. Following abstract and title screening, 422 publications were subjected to full-text screening and 60 quantitative studies were included in this study. RESULTS: Meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) results revealed positive direct effects of caregiving responsibilities and caregiving experiences on benefit finding (β = .43, 95% CI [.074, .782], p < .05) and emotion regulation (β = .72, 95% CI [.44, 1.00], p < .001), respectively. However, there was neither a significant direct effect of caregiving components on psychosocial adjustment nor a significant indirect effect of caregiving components on psychosocial adjustment through benefit finding or emotion regulation. CONCLUSION: Findings revealed a need for research into how caregiving contextual factors affect relations among youth caregiving, protective factors, and adjustment.

Humans↗

PubMed2025

Distinguishing specific from broad genetic associations between external correlates and common factors.

MOTIVATION: Within the genomic structural equation modelling (genomic SEM) framework, common factors are often used to index shared genetic etiology across constellations of genome-wide associations studies (GWASs) phenotypes. A standard common pathway model, in which a genetic association is estimated between an external GWAS phenotype and a common factor, assumes that all genetic associations between the external GWAS phenotype and the individual indicator phenotypes are mediated through the factor. This assumption can be tested using the QTrait statistic, which compares the common pathway model to an independent pathways model that allows for direct genetic associations between the external GWAS phenotype and the individual indicators of the factor. However, QTrait is not designed to identify either the magnitude or the source of this heterogeneity. RESULTS: We expand upon the QTrait approach by describing an effect size index that quantifies the degree to which the common pathways model is violated, and we provide a systematic approach for empirically identifying specific direct pathways between an external trait and indicator traits. Our method comprises a series of omnibus tests and outlying indicator detection algorithms indexing the heterogeneity of associations between the genetic component of external traits and the individual indicators of common factors. We provide a set of automated functions which we apply to investigate the patterns of genetic associations across a set of external correlates with respect to indicators of general cognitive ability and case-control and proxy GWAS indices of Alzheimer's disease. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The Genomic SEM R package and the QTrait function is available at https://github.com/GenomicSEM/GenomicSEM. The QTrait function tutorial is available at https://github.com/GenomicSEM/GenomicSEM/wiki/8.-Tutorials. To ensure reproducibility of the analyses presented in this manuscript, the exact version of the QTrait function used, along with input data and scripts, has been archived on Zenodo (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17186083).

Genome-Wide Association Study↗

PubMed1983

The structure of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale scale: a reinterpretation.

This research examines the structure of the Philadelphia Geriatric Center (PGC) Morale Scale. A multiple indicator structural equation model including three first-order factors and one second-order factor is proposed to account for the dimensionality of the PGC Morale Scale. Based on data from the 1968 National Senior Citizens Survey, the proposed model is consistently supported and replicated across four randomly divided subsamples. Given these results, the claim that the PGC Morale Scale is multidimensional is only appropriate for the first-order factors. On the level of the second-order, a unidimensional interpretation is more accurate.

Aged↗