plotProbe: Plot a latent interaction

In semTools: Useful Tools for Structural Equation Modeling

Plot a latent interaction

Description

This function will plot the line graphs representing the simple effect of the independent variable given the values of the moderator. For multigroup models, it will only generate a plot for 1 group, as specified in the function used to obtain the first argument.

Usage

plotProbe(object, xlim, xlab = "Indepedent Variable",
  ylab = "Dependent Variable", legend = TRUE, legendArgs = list(), ...)

Arguments

object	A list, typically the result of probing a latent 2-way or 3-way interaction obtained from the probe2WayMC(), probe2WayRC(), probe3WayMC(), or probe3WayRC() functions.
xlim	The vector of two numbers: the minimum and maximum values of the independent variable
xlab	The label of the x-axis
ylab	The label of the y-axis
legend	logical. If TRUE (default), a legend is printed.
legendArgs	list of arguments passed to legend() function if legend=TRUE.
...	Any additional argument for the plot() function

Value

None. This function will plot the simple main effect only.

Note

If the object does not contain simple intercepts (i.e., if the object$SimpleIntcept element is NULL), then all simple intercepts are arbitrarily set to zero in order to plot the simple slopes. This may not be consistent with the fitted model, but was (up until version 0.5-7) the default behavior when the y-intercept was fixed to 0. In this case, although the relative steepness of simple slopes can still meaningfully be compared, the relative vertical positions of lines at any point along the x-axis should not be interpreted.

Author(s)

Sunthud Pornprasertmanit ([e-mail])

Terrence D. Jorgensen (University of Amsterdam; [e-mail])

References

Schoemann, A. M., & Jorgensen, T. D. (2021). Testing and interpreting latent variable interactions using the semTools package. Psych, 3(3), 322–335. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.3390/psych3030024")}

See Also

• indProd() For creating the indicator products with no centering, mean centering, double-mean centering, or residual centering.

• probe2WayMC() For probing the two-way latent interaction when the results are obtained from mean-centering, or double-mean centering

• probe3WayMC() For probing the three-way latent interaction when the results are obtained from mean-centering, or double-mean centering

• probe2WayRC() For probing the two-way latent interaction when the results are obtained from residual-centering approach.

• probe3WayRC() For probing the two-way latent interaction when the results are obtained from residual-centering approach.

Examples

library(lavaan)

dat2wayMC <- indProd(dat2way, 1:3, 4:6)

model1 <- "
f1 =~ x1 + x2 + x3
f2 =~ x4 + x5 + x6
f12 =~ x1.x4 + x2.x5 + x3.x6
f3 =~ x7 + x8 + x9
f3 ~ f1 + f2 + f12
f12 ~~ 0*f1
f12 ~~ 0*f2
x1 ~ 0*1
x4 ~ 0*1
x1.x4 ~ 0*1
x7 ~ 0*1
f1 ~ NA*1
f2 ~ NA*1
f12 ~ NA*1
f3 ~ NA*1
"

fitMC2way <- sem(model1, data = dat2wayMC, meanstructure = TRUE)
result2wayMC <- probe2WayMC(fitMC2way, nameX = c("f1", "f2", "f12"),
                            nameY = "f3", modVar = "f2", valProbe = c(-1, 0, 1))
plotProbe(result2wayMC, xlim = c(-2, 2))


dat3wayMC <- indProd(dat3way, 1:3, 4:6, 7:9)

model3 <- "
f1 =~ x1 + x2 + x3
f2 =~ x4 + x5 + x6
f3 =~ x7 + x8 + x9
f12 =~ x1.x4 + x2.x5 + x3.x6
f13 =~ x1.x7 + x2.x8 + x3.x9
f23 =~ x4.x7 + x5.x8 + x6.x9
f123 =~ x1.x4.x7 + x2.x5.x8 + x3.x6.x9
f4 =~ x10 + x11 + x12
f4 ~ f1 + f2 + f3 + f12 + f13 + f23 + f123
f1 ~~ 0*f12
f1 ~~ 0*f13
f1 ~~ 0*f123
f2 ~~ 0*f12
f2 ~~ 0*f23
f2 ~~ 0*f123
f3 ~~ 0*f13
f3 ~~ 0*f23
f3 ~~ 0*f123
f12 ~~ 0*f123
f13 ~~ 0*f123
f23 ~~ 0*f123
x1 ~ 0*1
x4 ~ 0*1
x7 ~ 0*1
x10 ~ 0*1
x1.x4 ~ 0*1
x1.x7 ~ 0*1
x4.x7 ~ 0*1
x1.x4.x7 ~ 0*1
f1 ~ NA*1
f2 ~ NA*1
f3 ~ NA*1
f12 ~ NA*1
f13 ~ NA*1
f23 ~ NA*1
f123 ~ NA*1
f4 ~ NA*1
"

fitMC3way <- sem(model3, data = dat3wayMC, std.lv = FALSE,
                 meanstructure = TRUE)
result3wayMC <- probe3WayMC(fitMC3way, nameX = c("f1", "f2", "f3", "f12",
                                                 "f13", "f23", "f123"),
                            nameY = "f4", modVar = c("f1", "f2"),
                            valProbe1 = c(-1, 0, 1), valProbe2 = c(-1, 0, 1))
plotProbe(result3wayMC, xlim = c(-2, 2))

semTools documentation built on April 3, 2025, 9:23 p.m.