We tested the longitudinal measurement invariance of the Teacher Network of

We tested the longitudinal measurement invariance of the Teacher Network of Relationships Inventory (TNRI) a teacher-report measure of teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) on a sample of 784 academically at-risk students across ages 6 to 15 years by comparing the model for each subsequent year with that of the previous year(s). which time parental written consent for continued participation was received for 569 participants. Attrition analysis of Year 9 sample found that attritted participants scored lower TAPI-1 on math achievement1 at Year 1 (Δ= ?2.09 = .038) but did not differ on TAPI-1 a wide range of other variables (e.g. gender ethnicity bilingual education status economically disadvantaged status retaintion status literacy scores reading achievement school engagement parent education level and parent literacy status)2. Across 9 years on average 243.3 (MIN-MAX 148 teachers from 72 (36-108) schools completed the TRNI and provided demographic information each year. The number of teachers and schools involved each year increased over time due to the increasing dispersion of students outside the original three participating school districts. Most teachers were female (54.3%-87%) and White (58.8%-73.9%) while 1.4%-11.7% of teachers were Hispanic and 1.9%-8.7% were African American. From Year 1 to Year 9 there were 2.5%-6.4% teachers with less than one year of experience 11 with 1-3 years 11 with 4-6 years 4.5%-11.2% with 7-9 years 3.5%-8.2% with 10-12 years and 20.4%-37.7% with more than 12 years. As expected for an educationally at-risk sample some students were retained in grade. By Year 9 154 (31.5%) students had been retained once and 10 (2.0%) students had been retained twice. Teacher Network of Relationships Inventory (TNRI) In the spring of each year from Year 1 to Year 9 teachers were mailed questionnaires for each study child in their classroom that included the TNRI. Teachers received $25 for each questionnaire returned. In the elementary grades students’ primary classroom teacher completed the questionnaire. Beginning at the transition to middle school questionnaires had been TAPI-1 completed from the student’s vocabulary arts instructor (93%) or a instructor named from the vocabulary arts instructor as having higher understanding of the college student (7%). As referred to above the 22-item TNRI originated from the kid version from the Network of Interactions Inventory (Furman & Buhrmester 1985 Particularly NRI items had been rephrased in order that educators reported TAPI-1 on the 5-stage Likert scale (to contains zero (Dudgeon 2004 it could suggest that both comparative models weren’t substantially not the same as each other. Towards the author’s understanding there isn’t an individual criterion that may claim dimension invariance; consequently a TAPI-1 discovering that nearly all criteria are inside TMSB4X the recommended thresholds can be interpreted as proof dimension invariance (Koomen et al. 2012 Vandenberg & Lance 2000 We carried out multi-group assessment analyses to check if the invariance assumptions keep for gender and ethnicity. Three cultural groups had been included in this analysis African American (AA) Hispanic (HIS) and White (W). In the case of non-invariance modification indices were used to locate the non-invariant items across different groups. After we confirmed the invariance assumptions across years genders and ethnicities of the TNRI we examined the developmental pattern of TNRI factors across 9 years. The shift and the growth trend of factor means of the TNRI scales were tested using RM-ANOVA with Proc GLM in SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute 2012 RM-ANOVA allowed us to investigate if the TNRI construct means would maintain or shift across 9 years. If significant mean shift was found we tested the linear quadratic and cubic average growth trend of the TNRI scales to see if the decreasing or increasing trends would change linearly or if the trends would level off using the polynomial contrast option in Proc GLM procedure. Results Invariance of Model Structure across Years The model information indicated the revised CFA model with Warmth Conflict and Intimacy factors and four pairs of corrected items adequately fit the longitudinal data < .001 CFI = .926 TLI = .915 RMSEA = .068 and SRMR = .048. Which means configural factor invariance using the same pattern of estimated parameters held for 9 year data freely. Metric and Scalar Longitudinal Dimension Invariance The outcomes from the metric and scalar longitudinal dimension invariance exams are reported in Desk 1. Although model fit check TAPI-1 figures (= .02 ΔCFI=0 ΔTLI = 0 Δwith =.13 and with =.05. The Δ= .022 with 90% CI[.014 0.032 and RDR = .049. We figured the TNRI measure is basically invariant across therefore.