A Comparison of the Perception Structure of Cosmetology Education between Adult and General Learners: A Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

This study examined the structural relationships among educational environment, teaching methods, and perceived educational outcomes in cosmetology education and compared these relationships between adult and general learners using multi-group structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were collected from 282 learners enrolled in cosmetology-related educational programs, including 160 adult learners and 122 general learners. Following confirmatory factor analysis, configural and metric invariance were examined before comparing the structural relationships across the two groups. The results showed that educational environment had significant positive effects on both teaching methods and perceived educational outcomes, while teaching methods also had a significant positive effect on perceived educational outcomes. These findings indicate that educational environment and teaching methods commonly function as important factors in shaping perceived educational outcomes in both learner groups. The chi-square difference test showed no statistically significant difference in the overall structural paths between adult and general learners (Δχ²=6.342, Δdf=3, p=.096). Therefore, the structural relationships were interpreted as generally similar across the two groups. Although some relative variations were observed in the standardized path coefficients, these variations were interpreted only as exploratory tendencies because individual path differences were not statistically tested. In the general learner group, the direct path from educational environment to perceived educational outcomes was relatively large, whereas in the adult learner group, the path from educational environment to teaching methods was the largest, followed by the path from teaching methods to perceived educational outcomes. These findings suggest that educational environment and teaching methods should be considered jointly in cosmetology education rather than interpreted as distinctly group-specific factors. Further research with larger and more diverse samples and statistical tests of individual path differences is needed to verify the exploratory patterns observed in this study.