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The authors describe new developments in structural equation modeling as incorporated in LISREL V. The procedures are illustrated on data from three previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive mental health, rather than just the absence of mental illness, is rarely investigated among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by violent conflict in low-income countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate a model that could explain the interrelationship between factors contributing to positive mental health in displaced populations. In a longitudinal study we examine poverty, exposure to traumatic events and the change of material well-being after one year. We collected data in two consecutive years (2005 and 2006) from a community-based sample of IDPs in Ambon, Indonesia, through face-to-face structured interviews with consenting adults. Participants of this study were IDPs lived in Ambon during the violent conflict period. We interviewed 471 IDPs in the first year and reinterviewed 399 (85%) of the same subjects in the second year. The IDPs possessed good sense of coherence and subjective well-being. Our final model, which was generated by the use of structural equation modeling, fits the data well (χ2 = 52.51, df = 45,p = .21, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .019). Exposure to violent conflict had a negative impact on IDPs’ mental health initially and better economic conditions improved it (r = −.30 and .29 respectively). Mental health status one year previously was a strong predictor of future mental health, followed by individual economic growth in the past year (r = .43 and .29 respectively). On a group level the IDPs were resilient and adaptive to survive in adverse living conditions after devastating violent conflict, and the economic improvement contributed to it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A conceptual core model of the teacher stress process, assumed to be invariant, was tested on longitudinal data. A LISREL analysis confirmed the goodness of fit of the model Teachers' relations to pupils and teachers' perception of pupils as a stress source result in general strain, and in turn lead to various stress reactions. Teachers who perceive students as stressors at the middle of the first term report general strain and impaired somatic and mental health at the end of the school year. The major part of successful coping seems to take place during the first half of the school year, later only minor changes are noticed. It is argued that the short-term perspective on coping should guide further studies on teacher stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses reanalysis of Westinghouse Head Start Evaluation. One of the most challenging methodological problems facing evaluators of social interventions is that of the nonequivalent comparison group. In the case that the comparison group differs from the experimental group in important ways prior to the intervention, these differences are confounded with the treatment and therefore compete with the treatment in explaining any a posteriori differences between the two groups. The question is how should an evaluator determine what portion of a posteriori differences to attribute to the sources of preexisting differences and what portion to attribute to the program. Another question is what analytic technique should be used, and under what assumptions can a reasonable mathematical model be specified. While there are no unequivocal answers to these questions, under certain situations some approaches have important advantages over others. Throughout this paper the author will be emphasizing the need to interpret results as cautiously as the results of any quantitative analysis of data obtained from less than a true randomized experiment.