FIML for Missing Data in Lavaan

Full information maximum likelihood (FIML) is a modern statistical technique for handling missing data. If you are not familiar with FIML, I would recommend the book entitled [Applied Missing Data Analysis][2] by Craig Enders. The book is both thorough and accessible, and a good place to start for those not familiar with the ins and outs of modern missing data techniques.

The purpose of this wiki and the accompanying git repository is to take some of the examples related to FIML estimation within a regression framework from the Applied Missing Data [website][1], and translate them into code for the R package lavaan. The code on the Applied Missing Data website in mostly for Mplus, which is quite expensive software. I hope this will give those who don’t have access to Mplus the ability to work through the examples using free and open source software.

Lavaan Examples

The following examples are included on this wiki:

1. [Descriptives and Correlations][3]
2. [Regression Analysis][4]
3. [Regression Analysis with Auxiliary Variables][5]
4. [Regression Analysis with Interaction - Continuous Moderator][6]
5. [Regression Analysis with Interaction - Categorical Moderator][7]

License

This code is free and open source software, licensed under GPL. [1]: http://www.appliedmissingdata.com/ [2]: http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Missing-Analysis-Methodology-Sciences/dp/1606236393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401312750&sr=1-1&keywords=applied%20missing%20data%20analysis [3]: https://github.com/wmmurrah/lavaanFIML/wiki/1.-Descriptive-Statistics-and-Correlations [4]: https://github.com/wmmurrah/lavaanFIML/wiki/2.-Regression-Analysis [5]: https://github.com/wmmurrah/lavaanFIML/wiki/3.-Regression-Analysis-with-Auxiliary-Variables [6]: https://github.com/wmmurrah/lavaanFIML/wiki/4.-Regression-Analysis-with-Interaction:-Continuous-Moderator [7]: https://github.com/wmmurrah/lavaanFIML/wiki/5.-Regression-Analysis-with-Interaction:-Categorical-Moderator