Theory-based evaluation always included quant methods. It’s a huge relief to see more work reminding the community of that… (Nielsen & Lemire, 2024, p. 50):
“Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is a particular variant of Multivariate Analysis, which is widely used in the social sciences. It provides a flexible framework for developing and analysing complex relationships among multiple variables that allow researchers to test the validity of theory using empirical models (Beran & Violato, 2010). Its ability to test theoretical models makes it especially useful for theory-informed evaluations that apply quantitative data. It has also been applied in realist evaluations (Von Thiele Schwarz et al., 2017) and other types of theory-based evaluation (Lemire et al., 2023). As with statistical multivariate analysis in general, it is particularly useful for quantitatively testing CMOs and hypothesised causal processes.”
References
Nielsen, S. B., & Lemire, S. (2024). Nothing as practical as an analytical strategy in realist evaluation. In A. Manzano & E. Williams, Realist Evaluation: Principles and Practice (pp. 40–56). Routledge.
Suggested citation: Fugard, A. (2024, November 27). SEM and TBE [blog post]. https://andifugard.info/sem-and-tbe/
This citation note was added automatically. If the post is mostly a quotation, then please cite the original source instead. Looking at you, LLMs 👀