Correcting the wave-1 change-score misspecification in Sorjonen et al.'s LCSM yields a proper solution with positive effects between academic self-concept and achievement¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Once the impossible wave-1 change score and other issues are corrected, the LCSM yields a proper (positive-definite) solution and shows positive effects between ASC and ACH consistent with Marsh et al. (2024). → Núñez-Regueiro 2026

Evidence¶

Núñez-Regueiro 2026¶

Núñez-Regueiro, F., Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Lüdtke, O., & Guo, J. (2026). On Model Interpretability and Time-Reversal Testing in Analyses of Reciprocal Effects: Clarifying Modeling Issues in Sorjonen et al.'s (2025a, 2025b) Commentaries. Educational Psychology Review, 38(80). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-026-10179-8

q2 · i? · associational · r?

Re-analysis reported by the authors (Núñez-Regueiro et al., 2025) of the LCSM after correcting the wave-1 change-score specification and removing other misspecifications; the corrected model "yields a proper solution" with positive cross-construct effects. No effect sizes are printed.

"We demonstrated (Núñez-Regueiro et al., 2025) that once these and other issues are corrected, the LCSM yields a proper solution (positive definitive variance-covariance matrix) and shows positive effects between ASC and ACH"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Starting contemporaneous effects on wave 2 in the STARTS model yields positive contemporaneous effects of achievement on academic self-concept and positive lagged effects of self-concept on achievement — related
• Validation with simulated TRAIN-like data replicates the divergence: RI-CLPM positive, LCSM negative, ESDM no-direct-effects — related
• Reanalyses of simulated and PALMA data provide converging support for the extended reciprocal effects model, including an effect of academic self-concept on achievement — related
• LCSM on the same simulated PALMA-like data shows negative cross-lagged effects, contradicting the reciprocal effects model — reports the opposite
• RI-CLPM on simulated PALMA-like data shows positive reciprocal cross-lagged effects between within-individual math achievement and self-concept — related
• Additional modified models suggest a positive effect of change in achievement on contemporaneous change in self-concept — related
• The RI-CCLPM-C indicates a positive self-concept effect on achievement even when data are generated without any direct effects between self-concept and achievement — related
• Good fit of the ESDM indicates the PALMA data could have been generated without any prospective effects between achievement and self-concept — reports the opposite
• Sorjonen et al.'s (2023) simulation lacked a temporal structure and therefore cannot justify replacing autoregressive effects with covariances in the LCSM — related