A Monte Carlo Simulation Study to Assess Estimation Methods in CFA on Ordinal Data

Abstract

Likert-type scale data are ordinal data and are commonly used to measure latent constructs in the educational, social, and behavioral sciences. The ordinal observed variables are often treated as continuous variables in factor analysis, which may cause misleading statistical inferences. Two robust estimators, i.e., unweighted least square (ULS) and diagonally weighted least square (DWLS) have been developed to deal with ordinal data in confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Using synthetic data generated in a Monte Carlo experiment, we study the behavior of these methods (DWLS and ULS) and compare their performance with normal theory-based ML and GLS (generalized least square) under different levels of experimental conditions. The simulation results indicate that both DWLS and ULS yield consistently accurate parameter estimates across all conditions considered in this study. The Likert data can be treated as a continuous variable under ML or GLS when using at least five Likert scale points to produce trivial bias. However, these methods generally fail to provide a satisfactory fit. Empirical studies in the field of psychological measurement data are reported to present how theoretical and statistical instances have to be taken into consideration when ordinal data are used in the CFA model.

Keywords: confirmatory factor analysis, diagonally weighted least square, generalized least square, Likert data, maximum likelihood.