Testing two CFA models on the same sa... PreviousNext
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 cathrine pettersen posted on Monday, September 10, 2012 - 1:33 pm
Hi,

I am conducting a CFA of a particular questionnaire in a sample of offenders. There is theoretical and empirical evidence (most studies have found this factor structure both via EFA and CFA) for a four-factor structure. However, one study did obtain a two-factor structure as best fit (which corresponds to another theoretical stream). Since CFA is meant as a confirmatory procedure, and experts tend to advice against using it unless one has sufficient evidence for the proposed model, I was going to specify four factors and test that model. However, others now suggest I should test both models, and present the one with best fit, using the same sample for both tests. Is this acceptable usage of CFA? If not, whY?

Thank you
Cathrine
 Bengt O. Muthen posted on Monday, September 10, 2012 - 6:56 pm
The p-values are not right if you do a series of tests where the second test depends on how the first test came out, etc. But since you have two tests in mind beforehand, this will be fine. I would also compare the models using BIC.
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