Using Multilevel Models to Analyze Couple and Family Treatment Data: Basic and Advanced Issues.
Abstract
Couple and family treatment data present particular challenges to statistical analyses. Partners and family members tend to be more similar to one another than to other individuals, which raises interesting possibilities in the data analysis but also causes significant problems with classical, statistical methods. The present article presents multilevel models (also called hierarchical linear models, mixed-effects models, or random coefficient models) as a flexible analytic approach to couple and family longitudinal data. The article reviews basic properties of multilevel models but focuses primarily on 3 important extensions: missing data, power and sample size, and alternative representations of couple data. Information is presented as a tutorial, with a Web appendix providing datasets with SPSS and R code to reproduce the examples.
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MLE utilizes all data and provides unbiased estimates in the presence of missing data, assuming missing data are missing at random.
“MLE utilizes all data and, assuming missing data are missing at random, provides unbiased estimates in the presence of missing data (Atkins, 2005).”
From Daily Communication Between First-Year College Students and Their Parents: Associations With Perceived Relationship Positivity (2024) · cites this paper as Atkins, 2005
Cites
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The association between daily stress and sexual activity.
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A brief motivational intervention for physically aggressive dating couples
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Infidelity and Behavioral Couple Therapy: Relationship Outcomes Over 5 Years Following Therapy
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“For outcomes that were identical for patients and caregivers, MLMs for dyadic data were used [63, 64].”
MethodBurns, M. F., Secinti, E., Johns, S. A., Wu, W., Helft, P. R., Turk, A. A., Loehrer, P. J., Sehdev, A., Al-Hader, A. A., & Mosher, C. E. (2023) · Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcbs.2023.01.001 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
La aplicación de modelos lineales jerárquicos para el estudio de la eficacia en psicoterapia
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- Authors
- Atkins, D. C.
- Corresponding author
- Atkins, David C.
- ORCID
- Atkins, David C.
- Venue
- Journal of Family Psychology
- Published
- 2005
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 98-110
- ISSN
- 0893-3200 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1293
- OpenAlex
- W1992832615
- Cited by
- 276
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 1.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Family Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH56165, MH56223, R10MH056165)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Bayesian Inference
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- multilevel models, longitudinal data, missing data, statistical power, sample size, random coefficient models, mixed models, multilevel analysis
- MeSH terms
- Family Therapy, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Psychological, Models, Statistical, Couples Therapy
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