On insensitivity of the chi-square model test to nonlinear misspecification in structural equation models

In this paper, we show that for some structural equation models (SEM), the classical chi-square goodness-of-fit test is unable to detect the presence of nonlinear terms in the model. As an example, we consider a regression model with latent variables and interactions terms. Not only the model test has zero power against that type of misspecifications, but even the theoretical (chi-square) distribution of the test is not distorted when severe interaction term misspecification is present in the postulated model. We explain this phenomenon by exploiting results on asymptotic robustness in structural equation models. The importance of this paper is to warn against the conclusion that if a proposed linear model fits the data well according to the chi-quare goodness-of-fit test, then the underlying model is linear indeed; it will be shown that the underlying model may, in fact, be severely nonlinear. In addition, the present paper shows that such insensitivity to nonlinear terms is only a particular instance of a more general problem, namely, the incapacity of the classical chi-square goodness-of-fit test to detect deviations from zero correlation among exogenous regressors (either being them observable, or latent) when the structural part of the model is just saturated.Research of the second author is supported by the grants SEJ2006-13537 and PR2007-0221 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology

On Nonequivalence of Several Procedures of Structural Equation Modeling

generalized least squares, incorrect model, incremental fit index, maximum likelihood, noncentrality parameter,

Partial possibilistic regression path modeling

This paper introduces structural equation modeling for imprecise data, which enables evaluations with different types of uncertainty. Coming under the framework of variance-based analysis, the proposed method called Partial Possibilistic Regression Path Modeling (PPRPM) combines the principles of PLS path modeling to model the network of relations among the latent concepts, and the principles of possibilistic regression to model the vagueness of the human perception. Possibilistic regression defines the relation between variables through possibilistic linear functions and considers the error due to the vagueness of human perception as reflected in the model via interval-valued parameters. PPRPM transforms the modeling process into minimizing components of uncertainty, namely randomness and vagueness. A case study on the motivational and emotional aspects of teaching is used to illustrate the method