Efficacy of the indirect approach for estimating structural equation models with missing data: A comparison of five methods

Abstract

Incomplete or missing data are routinely encountered in structural equation problems. Although current literature supports the use of a direct approach for modeling the missing values in a structural equation model, many situations are not applicable for the effective use of this approach. This leaves the use of an indirect approach for dealing with missing information. There is a general lack of knowledge regarding the efficacy of the use of the indirect approach in structural equation modeling. This article assesses the efficacy of five indirect methods for estimating parameters in a structural equation model with various levels of missing data.