Pairwise maximum likelihood (PML) estimation method is developed for factor analysis models with ordinal data and fitted both in an exploratory and confirmatory set-up. The performance of the method is studied via simulations and comparisons with full information maximum likelihood (FIML) and...

Models with random effects/latent variables are widely used for capturing unobserved heterogeneity in multilevel/hierarchical data and account for associations in multivariate data. The estimation of those models becomes cumbersome as the number of latent variables increases due to...

IRT has been increasingly utilized in psychiatry for the purpose of describing the relationship among items in psychiatric disorder symptom batteries hypothesized to be indicators of an underlying latent continuous representing the severity of the psychiatric disorder. It is common to find...

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, we illustrate how longitudinal repeated measures of binary outcomes are analysed using population average and subject specific logistic regression models. We show how the autocorrelation found in longitudinal data is accounted for by both...

We analyse household unit non-response in six major UK Government surveys by using a multilevel multinomial modelling approach. The models are guided by current conceptual frameworks and theories of survey participation. One key feature of the analysis is the investigation of the extent to which...

We review three alternative approaches to modelling survey non-contact and refusal: multinomial, sequential, and sample selection (bivariate probit) models. We then propose a multilevel extension of the sample selection model to allow for both interviewer effects and dependency between...

Establishing contact is an important part of the response process and effective interviewer calling behaviours are critical in achieving contact and subsequent co-operation. The paper investigates best times of contact for different types of households and the influence of the interviewer on...

There has been substantial interest in the social and health sciences in the reciprocal causal influences that people in close relationships have on one another. Most research has considered reciprocal processes involving only 2 units, although many social relationships of interest occur within...

In this paper we analyse data that were collected continuously between 1950 and 1974 from a rural area of The Gambia to determine the effects of kin on child mortality. Multilevel event history models are used to demonstrate that having a living mother, maternal grandmother or elder sisters had...

Improving educational achievement in UK schools is a priority, and of particular concern is the low achievement of specific groups, such as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. An obvious question is whether we should be improving the outcomes of these pupils by spending more on their...