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June 17, 2026Psychological Methods

Best practices in multilevel modeling for within-cluster group comparisons: An evaluation of coding strategies reflecting group composition and heterogeneity.

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Authors

QZQian ZhangSpencer FoundationXLXiao LiuThe University of Texas at AustinZKZijun KeSun Yat-sen University

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Implication

Evaluation of coding strategies suggests optimal methods for group comparisons in multilevel designs.

Key Points

  • This research explores effective coding strategies in multilevel modeling for comparing groups within clusters, focusing on the impact of intracluster correlation.
  • Conducted an empirical study and simulations to evaluate various coding methods.
  • Analyzed the influence of ICC-D on test results for average within-cluster effects.
  • Recommended dummy coding, unweighted effect coding, and overall weighted effect coding based on power comparisons.
  • Dummy coding and unweighted effect coding provided comparable or higher power than within-cluster weighted effect coding.
  • Power differences reached up to 40% as both ICC-D and Level-1 residual variance heterogeneity increased.
  • Cluster-mean centering maintained reasonable Type I error rates under violations of homogeneity assumptions.

Cite This Study

Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a323d23d50b63ecad206eachttps://doi.org/10.1037/met0000836
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