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Structural equation modeling (SEM) has become an increasingly used methodological strategy in psychology. Nevertheless, many psychologists continue to be unclear about how to apply this analytic tool in their research. This article reviews SEM from a conceptual perspective, particularly focusing on confirmatory factor analysis. Additionally, the relation between SEM and other analytic techniques (e.g., exploratory factor analysis) are addressed. A confirmatory factor analytic example is presented and reviewed in detail. Finally, limitations of SEM and other considerations are discussed.
Crowley et al. (Sun,) studied this question.