Binary vars' variances not given in C... PreviousNext
Mplus Discussion > Categorical Data Modeling >
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 Dino Gibertoni posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 6:54 am
dear Drs. Muthén,
I'm performing a path analysis with binary covariates and continuous outcomes.

I cannot calculate some StdYs because in the correlation matrix obtained with Analysis:Type=Basic I have empty cells where I should find the correspondent binary variables' variances.

I checked these variances with Stata and there seems to be nothing strange.

Can you please give me some advice on how to proceed?
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 11:26 am
It sounds like you have put the binary covariates on the CATEGORICAL list. This list is for dependent variables only.
 Dino Gibertoni posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 12:21 pm
Excuse me for being not accurate.

I meant that I have endogenous mediating binary variables (three, and all are on the CATEGORICAL list) and just one independent binary, not in the CATEGORICAL list.

As a matter of fact, I have the variance of the independent binary and I don't have the variances of the other three binaries.
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 12:26 pm
That is because for categorical dependent variables, the sample statistics for model estimation are correlations not variances/covariances. If you treat the variable as continuous, you will obtain a variance like you get in Stata.
 Dino Gibertoni posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 12:40 pm
Yes!, now I have the variances and they are pretty the same that I get in Stata.

Just to be reassured: I must take them away from the CATEGORICAL list only for the Basic analysis, right? I understood that when I run the model, the categorical dependent variables must be in the list.
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 1:25 pm
For the estimation of the model, categorical dependent variables should be on the CATEGORICAL list.
 Dino Gibertoni posted on Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 1:38 pm
thank you very much Linda for your support!
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