Software for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)

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  • LISREL - original and possibly still most popular program for SEM.  My personal favourite.  Recent versions are much easier to use (the new SIMPLIS language, and path diagram input are both available - but fear not, the old way of specifying matrices is still there.)   Later versions have some MLM capabilities. 
  • Mplus - a relative newcomer to the world of SEM, it has a nice input language.  Good for categorical and ordered categorical analysis.  Can also do MLM.  I wrote a review of version 2.0 in the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology   (volume 54, part 2,  page 383-387; 2002).
  • EQS - I have never been a huge fan of EQS, but lots of people do like it, so maybe that's just me.  Also has some MLM capability.
  • AMOS - whilst I always suggest that I like LISREL the most, it always seems to be AMOS that I actually use.  Nicest interface of all the programs I know.  Estimation with means is nice, bootstrapping is v. good.  Was way ahead of the rest on missing data analysis, but the others have all just about caught up.  I reviewed this in the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology   (Volume: 53 Part: 1 Page: p141 -144 ).
  • Mx - you  don't see Mx mentioned a great deal in lists of SEM software, which I think is a shame.   Partly because it's rather a natty bit of software, with some nice features.  And partly because it's free.  It's a bit tricky to use, until you get the hang of it, but once you have, it's not especially tricky.    
If your software isn't here, and you think it should be, see this page .

I was going to put a list of multilevel modelling / hierarchical linear modelling software here, but there's a much better list here .  

 

 

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