Effects of Various Simulation Conditions on Latent-Trait Estimates: A Simulation Study

The aim of this simulation study, determine the relationship between true latent scores and estimated latent scores by including various control variables and different statistical models. The study also aimed to compare the statistical models and determine the effects of different distribution types, response formats and sample sizes on latent score estimations. 108 different data bases, comprised of three different distribution types (positively skewed, normal, negatively skewed), three response formats (three-, five-and seven-level likert) and four different sample sizes (100, 250, 500, 1000) were used in the present study. Results show that, distribution types and response formats, in almost all simulations, have significant effect on determination coefficients. When the general performance of the models are evaluated, it can be said that MR and GRM display a better performance than the other models. Particularly in situations when the distribution is either negatively or positively skewed and when the sample size is small, these models display a rather good performance.