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Tag: Quantitative methods

  • A tutorial for conducting intersectional multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA)

    A tutorial for conducting intersectional multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA)

    How can researchers better measure overlapping social inequalities? Evans et al. (2024) offer an accessible tutorial on I-MAIHDA, a multilevel approach designed to examine health, social, and economic disparities across intersecting groups.

    Intersectional multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (I-MAIHDA) is an innovative approach for investigating inequalities across health, disease, psychosocial, and socioeconomic outcomes. Evans et al. explain that I-MAIHDA and related methods offer clear conceptual and practical advantages over standard single-level regression models. By helping researchers examine how multiple, interlocking systems of marginalization and oppression produce inequalities—and by overcoming the typical challenges of analyzing interactions—it serves as a valuable tool for social epidemiology, health psychology, precision medicine, public health, and environmental justice. The method allows researchers to estimate average differences between intersectional groups, evaluate interaction effects in detail, and separate individual variation into differences within groups and between groups.

    Because of the lack of practical guidance on running and interpreting MAIHDA models across different studies, Evans et al. bring this knowledge together into a clear conceptual and practical guide for both continuous and binary outcomes. While they focus on I-MAIHDA, the tutorial also sheds light on related methods, such as multicategorical MAIHDA used in clinical research. To help researchers run their own models or understand the concepts, the authors offer step-by-step guidance alongside a practical example using simulated health data, providing all data and code so readers can replicate the analyses.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Evans, C. R., Leckie, G., Subramanian, S. V., Bell, A., & Merlo, J. (2024). A tutorial for conducting intersectional multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA). SSM – Population Health, 26, 101664. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101664

  • Intersectionality in Quantitative Psychological Research: I. Theoretical and Epistemological Issues

    Intersectionality in Quantitative Psychological Research: I. Theoretical and Epistemological Issues

    Can quantitative methods work with an intersectional framework? Else-Quest and Hyde (2016) show how combining quantitative research with intersectionality can expand research tools and deepen our understanding of psychology.

    While intersectionality has become a familiar buzzword in psychology and is widely known in feminist scholarship across the social sciences, its definitions often vary. Across these different definitions, Else-Quest and Hyde highlight three shared assumptions: first, all people belong to multiple social categories at the same time that are interconnected; second, each category carries an element of inequality or power; and third, these categories belong both to the individual and to the social context they live in, meaning categories and their meaning can shift and change.

    Treating intersectionality as an overall approach and a critical theory rather than a falsifiable theory, the authors evaluate its potential within quantitative research. To explore how well an intersectional approach fits with different research models, they discuss positivism, social constructionism, and standpoint epistemology, looking at what each means for research methods. Aiming to expand intersectional approaches within the psychology of women, Else-Quest and Hyde address both the challenges and the promises of bringing these perspectives together. Ultimately, the authors argue that researchers can successfully use quantitative methods within an intersectional approach, which will grow the field by giving intersectionality researchers more tools. At the same time, they urge quantitative researchers to adopt an intersectional approach, which will enrich and deepen how we understand psychological concepts and processes.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Else-Quest, N. M., & Hyde, J. S. (2016). Intersectionality in Quantitative Psychological Research: I. Theoretical and Epistemological Issues. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(2), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684316629797