Source: Review of Educational Research, 84(3), September 2014, p. 328-364.
This article summarizes the different approaches to handling dependence that have been advocated by methodologists.
The authors present a case study using effect sizes from a recent meta-analysis of reading interventions, in order to compare the results obtained from different approaches to dealing with dependence.
The results show that mean effect sizes and variance estimates were found to be similar.
However, estimates of indexes of heterogeneity varied.
Meta-analysts are advised to explore the effect of the method of handling dependence on the heterogeneity estimates before conducting moderator analyses and to choose the approach to dependence that is best suited to their research question and their data set.