Variations on the Common Fate Model for Dyadic Analysis: Recommendations for Model Selection

ABSTRACT Interest in two‐person interaction scenarios has increased substantially over the prior decades, and a multitude of analytic approaches have been developed to accommodate these designs. Although the Actor‐Partner model has received the most attention, useful variations on the Common Fate Model (CFM) for dyadic analysis have emerged. Specifically, the Between‐Within CFM (BW‐CFM) has arisen as a compelling approach, as it produces a Dyad‐level coefficient representing the between‐dyads effect, within‐dyad coefficients at the Person‐level, and allows for the estimation of contextual effects. Although the basic configuration of the BW‐CFM is well understood, several configurations of the model that accommodate different patterns of Person‐level relationships remain unexplored. The present work examines specifications of the BW‐CFM that are likely to arise in real‐world analysis, describes a procedure for selecting the optimal specification of Person‐level parameters and illustrates the application of a procedure for quantifying the degree of model selection uncertainty.