Reanalyses of simulated and PALMA data provide converging support for the extended reciprocal effects model, including an effect of academic self-concept on achievement¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · checked against its sources 2026-10-24 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Reanalyses of both the simulated data constructed by Sorjonen et al. and the original PALMA dataset provide converging support for the extended REM and, in particular, for an effect of academic self-concept on achievement. → Fernando Núñez-Regueiro 2025

Evidence¶

Fernando Núñez-Regueiro 2025¶

Fernando Núñez-Regueiro, Herbert W Marsh, Reinhard Pekrun, Oliver Lüdtke, Jiesi Guo. (2025). The Reciprocal Effects Model is Robust to Alternative Modeling Specifications: A Response to Sorjonen et al., 2025. Educational Psychology Review, 37 (3), pp.79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10059-7

q2 · i? · associational · r?

The authors reanalyzed two data sources: the simulated data constructed by Sorjonen et al. and the original PALMA dataset used in Marsh et al. (2024), applying their comparative modeling framework to both. The article reports that "our reanalyses provide converging support for the extended REM and, in particular, for an effect of academic self-concept on achievement."

"Using this comparative framework, we reanalyzed both the simulated data constructed by Sorjonen et al. and the original PALMA dataset used in Marsh et al. (2024)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Academic Self-Concept — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• The extended REM was robust to several alternative modeling specifications proposed by Sorjonen et al. — related
• Meta-analyses show prior academic self-concept predicts subsequent achievement, controlling prior achievement — related
• Across basic and extended RI-CLPMs and CLPMs of five-wave secondary-school data, math self-concept and achievement show consistent reciprocal (bidirectional) directional ordering — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Time-reversed analysis of simulated data suggests a decreasing rather than increasing effect of self-concept on achievement, yielding inconsistent conclusions from the same data — reports the opposite
• 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 — reports the opposite
• The alternative models proposed by Sorjonen et al. relied on specifications that raised model-validity concerns or did not fully capture the extended REM's temporal structure — related
• Simulation evidence shows RI-CLPM estimates are biased when the true model is a CLPM with lag-2 effects, and fit statistics cannot decide between the two — related
• Adding lag-2 paths to CLPMs substantially improves fit and provides stronger controls for preexisting differences, positioning extended CLPMs as viable alternatives to RI-CLPMs — related
• RI-CLPMs control unmeasured time-invariant covariates better than CLPMs, but neither controls unmeasured time-varying covariates well — related
• With young primary-school readers, REM support appeared in CLPMs but not RI-CLPMs, motivating tests with older students — 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
• 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
• Validation with simulated TRAIN-like data replicates the divergence: RI-CLPM positive, LCSM negative, ESDM no-direct-effects — reports the opposite
• Reciprocal effects are robust to time-invariant confounders, but the French lagged self-concept effect did not survive the lag2 carryover stress test — related
• The choice of longitudinal statistical model can determine whether reciprocal motivation-achievement relations are found — related
• 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 — related
• 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
• The ESDM's unidirectional trait-ACH-to-trait-ASC path is not empirically identified, and the confounder-based RI-LTVC alternative shows poor fit with no support for a time-varying confounder — reports the opposite
• The SIM-NEW simulation's assumptions (fully simulated data, a single latent ability factor, and a non-REM time-reversed analysis) limit its relevance to the reciprocal effects debate — related
• Sorjonen et al.'s (2023) simulation lacked a temporal structure and therefore cannot justify replacing autoregressive effects with covariances in the LCSM — related
• Sensitivity analyses showed most sequential CVT paths were spurious due to confounders; only interest→enjoyment was robust — related
• The reciprocal relations model fits better than unidirectional alternatives, supporting reciprocal causation between emotions and achievement — related