Degrees of freedom in multilevel CFA

[Chao Xu]

Hi all,

In an aggregated CFA, it is well-known that the df can be calculated by substracting the number of parameters to be estimated from the number of variances and covariance.

How should we go about calculating the df in a multilevel CFA setting?

Thank you.

Chao

[Terrence Jorgensen]

How should we go about calculating the df in a multilevel CFA setting?

Same way.  Think of multiple levels as analogous to multiple groups.  There is a covariance matrix (and mean vector) at each level, and each element counts as a unique observed piece of information. 

Terrence D. Jorgensen

Assistant Professor, Methods and Statistics

Research Institute for Child Development and Education, the University of Amsterdam

http://www.uva.nl/profile/t.d.jorgensen

[Chao Xu]

Thanks for you quick reply, Dr. Jorgensen.

I didn't count in the between-level sample covariance and mean structures in the first place. I thought the multilevel CFA was just fit to the pooled sample covariance. Thank you so much.

Chao