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Error in structural equation model - "The model has negativedegrees of freedom"

1 message · John Fox

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Dear Sunil,

There are 7*8/2 = 28 raw moments among the 7 observed variables. Of these,
6*7/2 = 21 are used for the moments among the 6 fixed-exogenous variables,
leaving 28 - 21 = 7 df. You model has 11 free parameters. So df for the
model = 11 - 7 = -4.

Some additional comments:

If you're using raw moments, why isn't there a constant variable in the
model?

Do you really intend x1 -- x6 to be causes, rather than indicators, of m1
and m2?

Why are there no normalizing constraints on the latent variables?

Do you really want to fit a model like this to so small a data set?

I hope this helps,
 John

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John Fox
Department of Sociology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada L8S 4M4
905-525-9140x23604
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox 
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