Structural equation modeling techniques are used in many disciplines today, including the social sciences education, business, medicine, and the biological sciences. This book is designed to give students and researchers in all of those disciplines a good working knowledge of structural equation modeling based on the concepts and principles that form the building blocks of this powerful and increasingly popular analytical tool. The authors focus on the conceptual steps involved in analyzing theoretical models, including theory- or research-driven model specification, parameter estimation, model testing, interpretation of fit indices, and respecification of the model. Two popular software packages - EQS5 and LISREL8-SIMPLIS - are used in data examples throughout the book.