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

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.