2018/01/29 by Scott Monroe · 21 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Decision Sciences · Mathematics · #Advanced Statistical Methods and Models #Context (archaeology) #Correlation #Covariance #Econometrics #Estimator #Mathematics #Monte Carlo method #Normality #Polychoric correlation #Psychometric Methodologies and Testing #Sample size determination #Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods #Statistical hypothesis testing #Statistics
paper · doi:10.1080/00273171.2017.1419851
published in Multivariate Behavioral Research 53(2), 247-266 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2018/01/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
This research concerns the estimation of polychoric correlations in the context of fitting structural equation models to observed ordinal variables by multistage estimation. The first main contribution of this research is to propose and evaluate a Monte Carlo estimator for the asymptotic covariance matrix (ACM) of the polychoric correlation estimates. In multistage estimation, the ACM plays a prominent role, as overall test statistics, derived fit indices, and parameter standard errors all depend on this quantity. The ACM, however, must itself be estimated. Established approaches to estimating the ACM use a sample-based version, which can yield poor estimates with small samples. A simulation study demonstrates that the proposed Monte Carlo estimator can be more efficient than its sample-based counterpart. This leads to better calibration for established test statistics, in particular with small samples. The second main contribution of this research is a further exploration of the consequences of violating the normality assumption for the underlying response variables. We show the consequences depend on the type of nonnormality, and the number and location of thresholds. The simulation study also demonstrates that overall test statistics have little power to detect the studied forms of nonnormality, regardless of the ACM estimator.