Setting non-significant paths to zero PreviousNext
Mplus Discussion > Structural Equation Modeling >
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 Elizabeth Canning posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - 9:16 am
I recently had a reviewer comment that non-significant paths in my path model should not be deleted from the model and instead they should be set to zero.

I thought (perhaps erroneously) that regression coefficients are automatically set to zero in Mplus by default unless they are specified otherwise in the model.

I've run the path model both ways (1. only specifying significant paths, 2. specifying significant paths and setting all non-significant paths to zero). The path coefficients and model fit indices only change very slightly between the two models.

My questions are:

1) Which method is typically preferred and which papers should I refer to?

2) How does Mplus handle paths that are unspecified vs. setting them to zero?

Thanks!
 Bengt O. Muthen posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - 2:50 pm
I would not delete insignificant paths, nor set them to zero. Just report them.

The Mplus default settings are given in the UG, chapter 14. In typical path analyses, paths are not free to be estimated unless mentioned in the MODEL command.
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