This comprehensive, applied approach to multilevel analysis is distinguished by its wide range of applications relevant to the behavioral, educational, organizational, and social sciences. Univariate and multivariate models are used to understand how to design studies and analyze data. Readers are encouraged to consider what they are investigating, their data, and the strengths and limitations of each technique before selecting their approach. Numerous examples and … More >>
An Introduction to Multilevel Modeling Techniques: Second Edition
This isn’t the most “introductory” introduction to multilevel modeling, but it’s an excellent book. Heck and Thomas present multilevel models from an integrated structural equation modeling perspective, in the vein of Muthen and the Mplus software or Skrondal & Rabe-Hesketh and the GLLAM software.
The authors illustrate how traditional multilevel models, such as those estimated with the HLM software, can be extended to models with latent predictors and latent outcomes, and they describe advanced extensions (e.g., finite-mixture models and models with categorical indicators) as well as similarities with other methods (e.g., latent growth curve models). It is nice to find a book that is both conceptually integrative and practical.
If you plan to use Mplus for your multilevel analyses, this is the single best book to buy. If you’re new to multilevel models, you should start with other books (such as Multilevel Modeling (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)) before digging into this one.
Rating: 5 / 5
Among many other sources, I used the first edition of this book when I was trying to teach myself multilevel modeling. I think it is probably a good book for a better informed reader, but it was too dense for a beginner. I was also disappointed to find that it devoted most of its 209 hundred pages to structural equation modeling and an unusually elegant treatment of multiple regression analysis. While the joining of multilevel modeling, factor analysis, and structrual equation modeling were discussed in a no doubt suitable way, the development of multilevel modeling itself got much less attention than the title of the book suggested, and much less attention than I needed at the time.
Rating: 3 / 5