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 luke fryer posted on Tuesday, September 07, 2010 - 11:52 pm
Dr. Linda Muthen,

I am a recent convert to the Mplus EFA method. Up until now I have used Parallel analysis and MAP to determine the # of factors. You suggest using fit statistics. My limited use suggests that more factors improves fit (limitlessly). How does one make the cut-off? How are the fit statistics interpreted?

If there is an article that I have missed which explains this please point me in the right direction.

thank you

luke
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2010 - 11:18 am
The number of factors that can be extracted is limited by the number of factor indicators. Over factoring leads to negative residual variances and an inadmissible solution. See the Topic 1 course handout and video where determining the number of factors is discussed in detail. See also:

Fabrigar, L.R., Wegener, D.T., MacCallum, R.C. & Strahan, E.J. (1999).
Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological
research. Psychological Methods, 4, 272-299.
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