ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of eight alternative strategies for handling item non-response in the context of structural equation modelling (SEM). These strategies are either available within existing SEM packages or all-purpose statistical programs. Alternatively, there are also available freeware products, which must the user to fill-in, several plausible versions of the data as a prerequisite to model fitting. The chapter is organized in several sections. The first section provides a brief overview of the current remedies to handle missing data as applied in this evaluation. The section also includes a synopsis of recent evaluations of missing data handling strategies based on simulation studies. The last section describes a SEM analysis and the context for empirical evaluation. The procedures to be evaluated in this chapter can be summarised under the following basic three categories: ad hoc based solutions; simple model based solutions, and advanced model based solutions.
