Reformulating and Simplifying the DF Analysis Model

Abstract

DeFries-Fulker (DF) Analysis for unselected populations is reformulated as a no-intercept model with centered variables and only two independent variables. The reformulation serves three purposes. First, the original formulation implicitly estimated two different values for c ² and two values for h ² . The new formulation resolves this ambiguity. Second, because the original formulation estimated h ² with the coefficient from a regression-interaction term, whether to center the interaction variables was unclear. The new formulation explicitly resolves this issue. Finally, the new formulation estimates fewer parameters, and therefore improves estimation efficiency and statistical power.