This is one of the most common questions we receive and, unfortunately, there are no quick answers. However, there are some initial guidelines that can be followed when assessing the fit of an SEM. For most SEMs, the goal of the analysis is to define a model that results in predicted values of the summary statistics (sometimes called “moment structures” consisting of the variances, covariances, and means of the observed variables) that are as close as possible to the values that were observed in the sample. SEMs that result in a closer correspondence between the predicted and the observed summary statistics obtain a better fit compared to models that do not.

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