In marklhc/pinvsearch: Specification search for partial factorial invariance

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)

In this brief vignette, we compare the noninvariance effect size for treating Likert-scale items as either continuous or ordinal.

library(pinsearch)
library(lavaan)
library(MASS, include.only = "mvrnorm")
library(difR)

Simulate a five-point example

set.seed(2049)
num_obs <- 500
lambda1 <- seq(.9, .6, length.out = 7)
lambda2 <- c(lambda1[1], 1, lambda1[3:7])
cov1 <- tcrossprod(lambda1) + diag(.5, 7)
dimnames(cov1) <- list(paste0("yy", 1:7), paste0("yy", 1:7))
thres1 <- rbind(seq(-1.5, 0, length.out = 7),
                seq(-0.5, 0.25, length.out = 7),
                rep(1, 7),
                seq(2, 2.5, length.out = 7))
thres2 <- rbind(c(thres1[1, 1], -0.5, thres1[1, 3:6], -0.5),
                thres1[2,],
                c(rep(1, 3), rep(0.5, 2), rep(1, 2)),
                thres1[4,])
mean1 <- rep(0, 7)
cov2 <- tcrossprod(lambda1) * 1.3 + diag(.5, 7)
dimnames(cov2) <- dimnames(cov1)
mean2 <- lambda1 * .4
# Parameters:
# Lambda
(lam <- rbind(lambda1, lambda2))
# Thresholds
(nu <- rbind(setNames(c(thres1), nm = rep(1:7, each = 4)),
             setNames(c(thres2), nm = rep(1:7, each = 4))))

Population ES

(dpop <- dmacs_ordered(
  nu,
  loadings = lam,
  thetas = 1,
  link = "probit",
  pooled_item_sd = 1,
  latent_mean = 0,
  latent_sd = 1
))

ystar1 <- mvrnorm(num_obs, mu = mean1, Sigma = cov1)
y1 <- ystar1
for (j in seq_len(ncol(ystar1))) {
    y1[, j] <- findInterval(ystar1[, j], thres1[, j])
}
ystar2 <- mvrnorm(num_obs, mu = mean2, Sigma = cov2)
y2 <- ystar2
for (j in seq_len(ncol(ystar2))) {
    y2[, j] <- findInterval(ystar2[, j], thres2[, j])
}
df <- rbind(cbind(y1, group = 1), cbind(y2, group = 2))

contfit <- cfa(' f =~ yy1 + yy2 + yy3 + yy4 + yy5 + yy6 + yy7 ',
               data = df, group = "group",
               group.equal = c("loadings", "intercepts"),
               group.partial = c("yy2~1", "yy4~1",
                                 "yy5~1", "yy7~1"))
(dcont <- pin_effsize(contfit))

ps_cat <- pinSearch(' f =~ yy1 + yy2 + yy3 + yy4 + yy5 + yy6 + yy7 ',
                    data = df, group = "group", type = "thresholds",
                    ordered = paste0("yy", 1:7))
(dcat <- pin_effsize(ps_cat$`Partial Invariance Fit`))

data.frame(
  rbind(continuous = dcont[1, ],
        categorical = dcat[1, ],
        population = dpop[c(2, 4, 5, 7)])
)

Compared to Mantel-Haenszel (MH)

# Dichotomous data (0, 1, 2 recoded to 0; 3, 4 recoded to 1)
df2 <- df
df2[, 1:7] <- as.integer(df2[, 1:7] >= 3)

ps2_cat <- pinSearch(' f =~ yy1 + yy2 + yy3 + yy4 + yy5 + yy6 + yy7 ',
                     data = df2, group = "group", type = "thresholds",
                     ordered = paste0("yy", 1:7))
(dcat <- pin_effsize(ps2_cat$`Partial Invariance Fit`))

difMH(df2, group = "group", focal.name = 1, purify = TRUE)

The results are consistent.

marklhc/pinvsearch documentation built on June 11, 2025, 6:43 a.m.