title: How to use structural equation modeling in medical education research: a brief guide.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Structural equationmodeling (SEM) is a family of statistical techniques used for the analysis of multivariate data to measure latent variables and their interrelationships. SEM has potential to advance theory and research in medical education.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to introduce SEM to medical education researchers and provide procedural information for applying SEM.
  
  
  METHODS
  We outline the basic tenets of SEM, principles of model creation, identification, estimation, and model fit to data, and the use of SEM in medical education research.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although it is a powerful statistical research tool, SEM has had only limited use in medical education research. We explicate a five-step procedure for applying SEM to research problems and summarize an example of SEM to test a hypothetical model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Notwithstanding some pitfalls, SEM does provide promise for testing complex, integrated theoretical models and advance research in medical education.
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Research Unit, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. violato@ucalgary.ca
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Violato
authors.forename: Kent G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Hecker
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D015233:Models, Statistical; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012106:Research; D013663:Teaching