ULTIMO RILASCIO: Giugno 2022

During the last forty-five years, the LISREL model, methods and software have become synonymous with structural equation modeling (SEM). SEM allows researchers in the social sciences, management sciences, behavioral sciences, biological sciences, educational sciences and other fields to empirically assess their theories. These theories are usually formulated as theoretical models for observed and latent (unobservable) variables. If data are collected for the observed variables of the theoretical model, the LISREL program can be used to fit the model to the data.

 

Today, however, LISREL is no longer limited to SEM. LISREL 12 includes the 64-bit statistical applications LISREL, PRELIS, MULTILEV, SURVEYGLIM and MAPGLIM.

LISREL is a 64-bit application for standard and multilevel structural equation modeling. These methods are available for the complete and incomplete complex survey data on categorical and continuous variables as well as complete and incomplete simple random sample data on categorical and continuous variables.

 

MULTILEV is a 64-bit application that fits multilevel linear and nonlinear models to multilevel data from simple random and complex survey designs. It allows for models with continuous and categorical response variables.

 

MGLIM is a 64-bit application that uses adaptive quadrature to fit generalized linear models with categorical, count and non-normally distributed outcome variables to multilevel data.

 

PRELIS is a 64-bit application for data manipulation, data transformation, data generation, computing moment matrices, computing estimated asymptotic covariance matrices of sample moments, imputation by matching, multiple imputation, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, univariate and multivariate censored regression, and ML and MINRES exploratory factor analysis.

 

SURVEYGLIM is a 64-bit application that fits Generalized LInear Models (GLIMs) to data from simple random and complex survey designs. Models for the Multinomial, Bernoulli, Binomial, Negative Binomial, Poisson, Normal, Gamma, and Inverse Gaussian sampling distributions are available.

Several special features and improvements are available in LISREL. Observed and latent variable names of up to sixteen characters are permitted and path diagram files can be exported as enhanced metafiles which can be imported into other documents. HTML tables for the various results of single group LISREL models are provided in the form of a HTML file. The iterative estimation algorithm for the parameters of LISREL models, which uses adaptive quadrature, has been improved. The multilevel generalized linear modeling application includes more link functions and computes estimates of the intra-class correlation coefficients.

 

LISREL also includes several new statistical methods. More specifically, two-stage multiple imputation Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for continuous, ordinal, and a mixture of continuous and ordinal variables, confidence interval estimates for the parameters of LISREL models, and standard error estimates and confidence interval estimates for standardized and completely standardized solutions are implemented. In addition, an alternative iterative estimation algorithm for the parameters of the general LISREL model and the extended LISREL model is available.

 

The technical details along with illustrative examples for two-stage multiple imputation SEM are provided in section 1. Section 2 contains the statistical theory for standard error and confidence interval estimates for the parameters of LISREL models and includes an illustrative example. In section 3, the estimation theory for estimating the parameters of single group LISREL models with variance constraints for the endogenous latent variables is provided and demonstrated. The GaussNewton algorithm for estimating the parameters of the extended LISREL model is described and illustrated in section 4.

 

The following features are new in Lisrel 12

 

TWO STAGE MULTIPLE IMPUTATION SEM

 

CONTINUOUS VARIABLES

 

MOMENT MATRICES

 

Suppose that the rows of (n x p) are observations of continuous variables x1, x2,…,  xp with mean vector μ  and covariance matrix Σ . The sample covariance matrix, , is an unbiased estimator of Σ and may be expressed as

 

 

where xand ¯denote observation and the sample mean vector of , respectively. A typical element of a consistent estimator, U, of the asymptotic covariance matrix,ϒ, of the sample variances and covariances (Browne 1984) is given by

 

 

The robust ML, DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods can be used to fit structural equation models for continuous variables to the sample covariance matrix by using the estimated asymptotic covariance matrix of the sample variances and covariances.

 

The correlation matrix, P, x1, x2,…,  xp is the covariance matrix of the standardized variables z1, z2,…,  zp where

 

and

 

 

where Dσ denotes a diagonal matrix with the standard deviations σ1,σ2,…, σof x1, x2,…,  xp on the diagonal. The sample correlation matrix, R, is an unbiased estimator of P and may be expressed as

 

 

where Ddenotes a diagonal matrix with the sample standard deviations s1,s2,…, sp of x1,x2,…, xp on the diagonal. A typical element of a consistent estimator, U, of the asymptotic covariance matrix, ϒ, of the sample correlations (Steiger and Hakstian 1982) is given by

 

 

where

 

 

and

 

 

and

 

 

The robust DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods can be used to fit structural equation models for continuous variables to the sample correlation matrix by using the estimated asymptotic covariance matrix of the sample correlations.

 

MULTIPLE IMPUTATION

 

The MCMC method

Suppose now that the observations of the continuous variables include missing data values with missing data value patterns and that the joint distribution of the variables is a multivariate normal distribution with mean vector μ and covariance matrix Σ.  The EM algorithm and the MCMC method for multiple imputation of incomplete data can be used to impute the missing data values of the continuous variables.

 

Suppose that Xdenote the observed data values. The EM algorithm (Dempster, Laird, and Rubin 1977) can be used to compute the maximum likelihood estimate of Σ. The minus two observed-data log likelihood may be expressed as

 

 

where ni denotes the number of observations of missing data value pattern i = 1,2,…, kΣdenotes the population covariance matrix of missing data value pattern i, μdenotes the mean vector of missing data value pattern i, and xoij is the jth vector of observed values of missing data value pattern i.

 

The initial estimate for the M-step is the sample covariance matrix, S, of the complete data or Iif the number of complete observations is too small. In the E-step, the conditional covariance matrices of the missing variables given the observed variables of the missing data value patterns are computed and used to compute an updated estimate  of Σ. Iteration of the consecutive M and E steps is terminated when the absolute difference between  and  is below the tolerance limit ε = 10-5.

 

The EM estimate, Σˆ, of Σ is used as the initial covariance matrix of the multivariate normal distribution in the first step of the Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) method. In the first step (P-step) of the MCMC method, an estimate of Σ is simulated from an inverse Wishart distribution. In the I-step, observations are simulated from the conditional normal distributions of the missing variables given the observed missing data value patterns and used to replace the missing data values. The next estimate of Σ is then obtained by computing the sample covariance matrix of the completed data. The P and I steps are repeated for a fixed number of times.

 

The FCS regression method

 

Suppose now that the observations of the continuous variables include missing data values and that a joint (multivariate) distribution of the variables exists. In this case, the Fully Conditional Specified (FCS) regression method (Brand 1999; Van Buuren 2007) can be used to impute the missing data values. The FCS regression method performs a fixed number of imputations to impute the missing data values. Each imputation consists of a filled-in phase and an imputation phase. In the filled-in phase, the missing data values are filled-in by using a sequence of regression analyses for the continuous variables. These filled-in data are then used as the initial data for the imputation phase in which the missing data values are imputed by using a sequence of regression analyses for the continuous variables. These imputed data are then used as the initial data for the next iteration of the imputation phase and a fixed number of iterations are executed for each imputation.

 

 

The filled-in stage fits the following regression models sequentially to the data, namely

 

 

where the elements of β = denote unknown regression weights and e1,e2,…, ep are error variables. The first model is fitted to the complete data for x1. The corresponding estimates are then used to simulate new parameter values from the posterior distributions of the parameters which in turn is used to fill-in the missing data values for x1. The second model is then fitted to the complete data for x2 and the filled-in data for x1. The final model is fitted to the complete data for xp and the filled-in data for x1,x2,…, xp-1. The filled-in data for x1,x2,…, xp are used for the first iteration of the imputation phase. The simulation of the new parameter values from the posterior distributions of the parameters and the imputation of the missing data values for each of the regression models use the same steps as outlined next for each iteration of the imputation stage.

For each iteration of the imputation stage, the following regression models are fitted sequentially either to the filled-in data or the imputed data, namely

 

 

where = 1,2,…, p, the elements of βj =  denote unknown regression weights, and ej denotes an error variable with variance σ²j. The estimated covariance matrix of the estimator βjˆ of βmay be expressed as

 

 

where X(j) denotes rows 1,2,…, j-1, j,…, p of the filled-in or imputed data. New values for the parameters are then simulated from their posterior distributions as

 

 

where Vhj denotes the upper triangular matrix in the Cholesky decomposition of Vj =V’hj Vhj, denotes a p x 1 standard normal vector, and is a Chi-square variable with nj – p degrees of freedom. The missing data values are then imputed as

 

 

where xijm denotes a missing data value in row and column j of X, xi(j) denotes row i of X(j), and z is a standard normal variable.

 

Average unstandardized moment matrices

 

Suppose that X1,X2,…,Xare imputed data sets for the incomplete data matrix, X, of the continuous variables x1,x2,…, xp and that S1,S2,…, Sand U1,U2,…, Udenote the corresponding sample covariance matrices and the estimated asymptotic covariance matrices of the variances and covariances, respectively. Then, the average sample covariance matrix is

 

 

and the average estimated asymptotic covariance matrix is

 

 

 

 

 

Chung and Cai (2019) point out that Ū only captures uncertainty based on complete data. As a result, its inverse cannot be used as a weight matrix for the robust ML, DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods for continuous structural equational modeling. A corrected weight matrix is obtained by correcting for the between-imputation variation in the estimated variances and covariances and is obtained as the inverse of

 

 

where sdenotes the p x (p+1)/2 vector consisting of the nonduplicated elements of the p x p symmetric matrix SS̄ and ϒ can be used to fit structural equation models to the average sample covariance matrix with the robust ML, DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods. The corrected robust DWLS and ULS Chi-square test statistic proposed by Chung and Cai (2019) is given by

 

 

where

 

 

where Δ denotes the Jacobian matrix of σ(θ) with respect to the unknown parameters θ of the structural equation model evaluated at θ=θ. The small sample adjusted Tb test statistic (Yuan and Bentler 1997) is given by

 

 

 

 

Average standardized moment matrices

 

Suppose that X1,X2,…,Xare m imputed data sets for the incomplete data matrix, X, of the continuous variables x1,x2,…, xp and that R1,R2,…, Rand U1,U2,…, Udenote the corresponding sample correlation matrices and the estimated asymptotic covariance matrices of the sample correlations, respectively. Then, the average sample correlation matrix is

 

 

and the average estimated asymptotic covariance matrix is

 

 

Chung and Cai (2019) point out that Ū only captures uncertainty based on complete data. As a result, its inverse cannot be used as a weight matrix for the robust DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods for continuous structural equational modeling for correlation matrices. A corrected weight matrix is obtained by correcting for the between-imputation variation in the estimated correlations and is obtained as the inverse of

 

 

where denotes the p x (p-1)/2 vector consisting of the nondiagonal and the nonduplicated elements of the p x p symmetric matrix RR̄ and ϒ can be used to fit structural equation models to the average sample correlation matrix with the robust DWLS, WLS, and ULS methods. The corrected robust DWLS and ULS Chi-square test statistic proposed by Chung and Cai (2019) is given by

 

 

where

 

 

where Δ denotes the Jacobian matrix of p (θ) with respect to the unknown parameters θ of the structural equation model evaluated at θ=θ. The small sample adjusted Tb test statistic (Yuan and Bentler 1997) is given by

 

 

 

ORDINAL VARIABLES

 

Polychoric Correlations

 

Suppose that the rows of (nxp) are observations ofordinal variables x1,x2,…, xp with m1,m2,…, mp categories, respectively. Suppose further that these ordinal variables are the result of the discretization of the underlying p  continuous standard normal variables z1,z2,…, zp as such that  ∼ (0,P) and

 

 

where denotes the population correlation matrix of and are parameters known as thresholds. The model for the univariate marginal of variable xi is

 

 

where ∅ (.) denotes the probability density function of the standard normal distribution. The maximum likelihood estimator of  (Jöreskog, 1994) is given by

 

 

where Φ -¹ denotes the inverse of the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal distribution and pi1, pi2,…, pimi denote the marginal sample proportions for xi.

 

The polychoric correlation matrix, R, is a consistent estimator of the population correlation matrix P. The model for the bivariate marginal of variables xi and xj is

 

 

where ∅2 (u,v, pij) denotes the probability density function of the bivariate standard normal distribution with correlation pij. The maximization of the bivariate likelihood function is equivalent to minimization of the discrepancy function

 

 

where  and  denote the maximum likelihood estimators of the mi – 1 and mj – 1 thresholds of variables xi and xj, respectively and is the sample proportion for xi and xj = l. The gradient of F (.) (Olsson 1979) may be expressed as

 

 

where (Olsson 1979)

 

 

where ∅2 (.)  denotes the density function of the bivariate standard normal distribution with correlation pij. The information (Jöreskog, 1994) is given by

 

 

The Fisher scoring algorithm is used to minimize F (.) with respect to pij .  Let θ= pij . If  denotes the tth successive approximation to θ, then the (t + 1)st approximation is obtained from

 

 

Iteration is terminated when the absolute gradient value is below the tolerance limit ε=10-³.

 

The asymptotic covariance matrix, ϒ, of the p* = p(p-1)/2  polychoric correlations is a p*(p*+1)/2 matrix. A typical element of ϒ (Jöreskog, 1994) may be expressed as

 

 

where  and 0 otherwise   denotes a typical element of

 

 

where 1denotes an mi x 1 column vector and

 

 

where Adenotes the mi x (mi – 1) matrix given by

 

 

Typical elements of αij, βi, and βare given by

 

 

where

 

 

The robust DWLS, WLS, or ULS methods can be used to fit structural equation models for ordinal variables to the polychoric correlation matrix by using the estimated asymptotic covariance matrix of the polychoric correlations (Chung and Cai (2019)).

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MICROSOFT WINDOWS

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

  • Operating System: Windows 7/8/8.1/10
  • Memory (RAM): 1 GB of RAM required.
  • Hard Disk Space: 100 MB of free space required.
  • Processor: Intel Pentium 4 or later.

 

NOTE:

Currently Lisrel offers no native Mac version of any of our programs currently available. However, if you have a dual-boot set-up or a Windows emulator, any of our programs should run without issues. Note that Lisrel can only provides support for using the software and are unable to provide guidance on setting up a Mac to allow for a program to be usable. Parallels Desktop is the most frequently used of the emulators. VirtualBox is a free alternative from Oracle, but it can be very slow compared to Parallels.


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Software originalmente sviluppato per la stima di modelli di equazioni strutturali (SEM). Oggi comprende molte altre applicazioni statistiche.