efa_simulate: Simulate data from a common-factor population model

In EFAtools: Fast and Flexible Implementations of Exploratory Factor Analysis Tools

Simulate data from a common-factor population model

Description

Draws data from a population correlation matrix, given either directly or built from a factor model. The population correlation is either supplied in R, or assembled from a loading matrix Lambda, the factor intercorrelations Phi, and the unique variances Psi as R = Lambda\, Phi\, Lambda' + Psi, standardized to a correlation matrix. marginals chooses the marginal distribution of the drawn cases, categories discretizes them into ordered categories, missing imposes a missing-data mechanism, and a misfit target perturbs the population with model error; see Details.

Usage

efa_simulate(
  N = NULL,
  Lambda = NULL,
  Phi = NULL,
  Psi = NULL,
  R = NULL,
  model_error = c("CB", "TKL", "WB", "none"),
  target_rmsea = NULL,
  target_cfi = NULL,
  marginals = c("normal", "empirical", "VM", "IG"),
  marginal_data = NULL,
  n_factors = NULL,
  skewness = NULL,
  kurtosis = NULL,
  force_pd = FALSE,
  categories = NULL,
  match = NULL,
  missing = c("none", "MCAR", "MAR", "MNAR"),
  missing_prop = NULL,
  missing_strength = NULL,
  missing_predictor = NULL,
  missing_vars = NULL,
  n_datasets = 1L,
  seed = NULL,
  return_pop = FALSE
)

Arguments

N	numeric. Number of cases (rows) to draw per dataset. Required unless return_pop = TRUE.
Lambda	matrix. A p by m matrix of factor loadings. Supply this (optionally with Phi and Psi) instead of R to build the population from a factor model.
Phi	matrix. The m by m factor intercorrelation matrix. Only used with Lambda. Default is NULL, in which case the factors are orthogonal (an identity matrix).
Psi	numeric vector or matrix. The unique variances: either a length-p vector or a p by p matrix (added as the residual covariance). Only used with Lambda. Default is NULL, in which case the unique variances that standardize the population to a correlation matrix are used.
R	matrix. A p by p population correlation matrix to draw from directly. Supply this instead of Lambda/Phi/Psi. It must have a unit diagonal; standardize a covariance matrix with stats::cov2cor() first.
model_error	character. The method used to perturb the population so the factor model fits it imperfectly ("model error"): one of "CB" (Cudeck-Browne, the default), "TKL" (Tucker-Koopman-Linn), "WB" (Wu-Browne), or "none". Model error is only applied when a target is supplied in target_rmsea or target_cfi; without one the population is exact, whatever model_error. Only used with a factor-model population (Lambda). Note that efa_power() defaults to "TKL" instead, because its minor common factors degrade factor recovery as well as the fit, so passing the same target to the two functions perturbs the population differently unless model_error is set explicitly.
target_rmsea	numeric. The population RMSEA the factor model should have relative to the perturbed population, a single number strictly in ⁠(0, 1)⁠. Supplying it activates model error. Simulating from an exact population overstates recovery, so a realistic value (around 0.05) is recommended for simulation studies (MacCallum, 2003). Default is NULL (an exact population; do not pass 0). Required for "CB" and "WB"; optional for "TKL".
target_cfi	numeric. Only used with model_error = "TKL": the population CFI to target, a single number strictly in ⁠(0, 1)⁠, on its own or together with target_rmsea (TKL then trades the two off). Default is NULL (do not pass 1). "CB" and "WB" target the RMSEA only.
marginals	character. The marginal distribution of the drawn data: one of "normal" (the default), which draws normal marginals; "empirical", which reproduces the population correlation while preserving the empirical marginals supplied in marginal_data; or "VM" (Vale-Maurelli) and "IG" (independent generator), which draw non-normal marginals with the target skewness and kurtosis.
marginal_data	matrix or data frame. Only used with marginals = "empirical", where it is required: a data set with one numeric column per variable (p columns), each with at least two distinct values, whose per-column distributions are resampled as the marginals of the drawn data. Its correlations are ignored. Default is NULL.
n_factors	numeric. Only used with marginals = "empirical": the number of factors the rank-matching reproduction fits. Default is NULL, in which case it is the number of columns of Lambda when the population is built from a factor model; it must be given when the population is supplied via R.
skewness	numeric. Only used with marginals = "VM" or "IG": the target marginal skewness, as a single value applied to every variable or a length-p vector. Default is NULL (0, a symmetric marginal). At least one of skewness or kurtosis must be given for these marginals.
kurtosis	numeric. Only used with marginals = "VM" or "IG": the target marginal excess kurtosis (0 for a normal marginal), as a single value applied to every variable or a length-p vector. Default is NULL (0).
force_pd	logical. Used with marginals = "VM" and with Cudeck-Browne model error (model_error = "CB"), where FALSE (the default) rejects a population or intermediate matrix that is not positive definite. What TRUE accepts instead differs by path, in both cases with a warning: for marginals = "VM" the intermediate correlation matrix is projected to the nearest correlation matrix (via psych::cor.smooth()), and the returned population becomes the one the projected draw attains; for model_error = "CB" there is no such projection – the closest positive-definite perturbation is kept instead, whose achieved RMSEA is below the target. Has no effect for the "TKL" or "WB" methods.
categories	numeric or list. Requests ordinal output by discretizing each variable into ordered categories. Either a count of equally probable categories (a single value applied to every variable or a length-p vector), or a length-p list of numeric vectors giving the marginal category proportions per variable (each strictly positive and summing to 1). Default is NULL, which returns the continuous data.
match	character. Only used with categories: an assertion about how the categorization relates to the population correlation. With a normal latent, cutting at the normal-scale thresholds already leaves the population polychoric correlation of the categorized data equal to the target correlation, so both values compute the same thresholds and produce identical data whenever both are legal. "thresholds" (the default) also cuts the "VM" and "IG" draws, whose ordinal Pearson and polychoric correlations then both depart from the population; "polychoric" states that the polychoric match is required and therefore rejects non-normal marginals. Not available with marginals = "empirical". Default is NULL ("thresholds" when categories is set).
missing	character. An optional missing-data mechanism to impose on the drawn data: one of "none" (the default, complete data), "MCAR" (missing completely at random), "MAR" (missing at random, depending on another variable), or "MNAR" (missing not at random, depending on the variable's own value). Introduced values become NA. By default every variable is holed, so under "MAR" each variable's predictor is itself subject to missingness and the mechanism is MAR given the complete data rather than ignorably MAR; missing_vars and missing_predictor together give an ignorable design (see Details).
missing_prop	numeric. Only used when missing is not "none", where it is required: the target marginal proportion of missing values per variable, a single number strictly between 0 and 1. This is the expected rate; the realized rate of a given draw varies around it.
missing_strength	numeric. Only used with missing = "MAR" or "MNAR": the slope of the logistic missingness model, setting how strongly the missing probability depends on the predictor. Default is NULL (1, a moderate dependence); 0 removes the dependence (equivalent to MCAR at the same rate) and large magnitudes make missingness nearly deterministic.
missing_predictor	integer or character. Only used with missing = "MAR": which variable drives each holed variable's missingness, as one column index or variable name per variable in missing_vars (so one per variable by default), in that order. A variable cannot be its own predictor; if the same predictor is reused for several missing_vars, it must not itself be one of them. Default is NULL, in which case each variable's missingness is driven by the next variable cyclically (so variable order matters; supply this explicitly when the order is arbitrary). Predictors outside missing_vars are fully observed (see Details for why this matters).
missing_vars	integer or character. Only used when missing is not "none": which variables carry missing values, as column indices or variable names. Default is NULL, in which case every variable is holed. Restricting it, together with pointing missing_predictor at variables outside that set, is how an ignorably MAR design is obtained (see Details).
n_datasets	numeric. The number of datasets to draw. Default is 1. With more than one, a list of datasets is returned.
seed	numeric. Optional seed for reproducible draws. When supplied, the caller's random-number stream is saved and restored, so the call leaves the global RNG state unchanged. Default is NULL (no seeding).
return_pop	logical. If TRUE, return only the population correlation matrix and draw no data. Default is FALSE. Because no data are drawn, the Vale-Maurelli intermediate correlation matrix is never formed, so its positive-definiteness (and any force_pd projection of it) is neither checked nor reflected in the returned population.

Details

Provide the population either as a ready correlation matrix in R, or through the model components Lambda, Phi, and Psi; the two ways are mutually exclusive. When the model components are used, Phi defaults to the identity matrix (orthogonal factors) and Psi defaults to the unique variances that make the population a correlation matrix (1 - \mathrm{diag}(Lambda\, Phi\, Lambda')); the assembled covariance is standardized with stats::cov2cor() so a non-standardized Psi still yields a correlation matrix. With the default Psi, a factor model whose implied communalities exceed 1 (a Heywood case) leaves no unique variance and is rejected; a Psi you supply is instead only required to give positive variances and a positive-semidefinite (a mathematically valid, internally consistent correlation/covariance structure) population. Cases with normal marginals (the default) are drawn through a matrix square root of the population correlation – a Cholesky factor, or a symmetric eigen square root when it is singular (e.g. a communality of exactly 1).

With marginals = "empirical", the iterative rank-matching algorithm of Ruscio and Kaczetow (2008) reproduces the population correlation while each variable takes the empirical marginal distribution of the matching column of marginal_data (resampled with replacement). Only the marginals of marginal_data are used; its own correlations are ignored, and the drawn columns follow the population's variables, not those of marginal_data.

With marginals = "VM" (Vale-Maurelli, 1983) or "IG" (the independent-generator method; Foldnes & Olsson, 2016), the cases reproduce the population correlation while carrying non-normal marginals with the target skewness and (excess) kurtosis. The Vale-Maurelli family does not span every valid non-normal distribution (Foldnes & Grønneberg, 2015); "IG" covers distributions "VM" cannot. Not every (skewness, kurtosis) pair is attainable – every distribution needs excess kurtosis of at least skewness^2 - 2, and either method covers a smaller region still – so an unreachable request is rejected, as is a "VM" intermediate correlation matrix that is not positive definite unless force_pd allows it.

With categories, the drawn data are discretized into ordered categories (an integer code 1 to K) at the thresholds that reproduce the requested category proportions (Olsson, 1979): the standard-normal quantiles for marginals = "normal", and for marginals = "VM" those quantiles mapped through the same Fleishman (1978) cubic the draw uses, so the requested proportions are reproduced on the non-normal scale too. Under marginals = "IG" the thresholds stay on the standard-normal scale while the data do not, so the achieved proportions depart from the request systematically rather than by sampling noise, and only the number of categories is guaranteed; the same holds for a "VM" variable whose Fleishman cubic is not increasing over its own thresholds and the tails beyond them, which keeps the normal-scale thresholds and is reported with a warning. This is more likely with strong skewness/kurtosis or very unequal category proportions; the warning names the affected variable. Because categorization attenuates product-moment correlations, the categorized data's Pearson correlation is smaller in magnitude than the population correlation; under non-normal marginals its polychoric correlation departs from the population as well. Ordinal output is not available with marginals = "empirical". Empty categories left by a draw are reported with a warning, as they destabilize the polychoric correlation and the factor analysis.

With missing, missing values are introduced into the drawn data under a chosen mechanism (Rubin, 1976), each variable holed at a target expected rate missing_prop. "MCAR" draws an independent mask, so missingness is unrelated to the data. "MAR" and "MNAR" set each case's missing probability by a logistic model of a standardized predictor: another variable for "MAR" (chosen by missing_predictor) or the variable's own value for "MNAR", with slope missing_strength. The mechanism acts on the drawn (latent) values, so when categories also discretizes the data the missingness is keyed on the underlying value, not the category code. For "MAR" the predictor is evaluated on the complete drawn values, so whether the mechanism is ignorably MAR depends on which variables carry missing values. By default every variable is holed, which leaves a variable's MAR predictor itself missing for roughly a missing_prop fraction of the cases whose missingness it drove. This breaks ignorability: the mechanism is then MAR conditional on the complete data but not ignorable for an analyst who sees only the observed data. As a result, estimators that are consistent under ignorable MAR – cor_method = "fiml" in efa_fit(), or the multiple imputation behind efa_mi() – keep a residual bias that grows with missing_prop and missing_strength. Restricting the holed variables with missing_vars and pointing missing_predictor at variables outside that set makes every predictor fully observed, which is ignorably MAR and recovers the unbiasedness those estimators are advertised with. The returned matrix carries the NAs, which the correlation estimators handle downstream.

With model_error, the population is perturbed away from the exact factor structure so the q-factor model (q = ncol(Lambda)) fits it only approximately, at a prescribed misfit; exact factor structures are unrealistic (see target_rmsea). The perturbation is applied once to the population, and the achieved misfit of the specified generating model is computed with the same fit-index formulas efa_fit() uses and returned in the model_error element. It needs a factor-model population with residual degrees of freedom and an exact factor structure (a diagonal Psi), and is orthogonal to the marginal, ordinal, and missing-data options. Three methods are available. "CB" (Cudeck & Browne, 1992) matches the target RMSEA to numerical precision and keeps the q-factor model the exact minimizer (the CFI follows as a derived quantity). "TKL" (Tucker, Koopman & Linn, 1969) adds minor common factors tuned so the achieved RMSEA – and, optionally, CFI – match the target(s); with a single target the match is close, with both it is a compromise, reported with a warning when the two cannot be reconciled. "WB" (Wu & Browne, 2015) draws the population from an inverse-Wishart distribution around the model-implied correlation; its calibration applies to the best-fitting model, so the reported misfit of the generating model is systematically larger than the target – about 1.4 times for a typical 12-variable, 3-factor model. Use "CB" when the reported RMSEA must equal the target.

Replicated draws (n_datasets > 1) are generated in parallel across replicates with future.apply; a parallel plan can be selected with future::plan() (the default plan runs sequentially). Each replicate is assigned its own reproducible random-number stream, so with a fixed seed the output is identical regardless of the number of workers.

Value

An object of class efa_simulated, a list containing:

data	The simulated data: an N by p numeric matrix, an integer matrix of category codes when categories is set, or a length-n_datasets list of these when n_datasets > 1. NULL when return_pop = TRUE.
population	The p by p population correlation matrix drawn from, model-error-perturbed when requested. When force_pd = TRUE causes marginals = "VM"'s intermediate matrix to be projected, population is the population the projected draw actually reaches, differing from the target by the drift the warning reports.
model_error	NULL, or, when model error was applied, a list of the method, the target and achieved RMSEA/CFI, the model degrees of freedom df, and the method's tuning parameter: kappa for "CB", v and eps for "TKL", m for "WB".
settings	The call's key arguments (N, n_datasets, marginals, categories, match, missing, seed), kept for reference and used when printing.

Printing the object shows a compact summary.

References

Cudeck, R., & Browne, M. W. (1992). Constructing a covariance matrix that yields a specified minimizer and a specified minimum discrepancy function value. Psychometrika, 57(3), 357-369. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/BF02295424")}

Fleishman, A. I. (1978). A method for simulating non-normal distributions. Psychometrika, 43(4), 521-532. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/BF02293811")}

Foldnes, N., & Grønneberg, S. (2015). How general is the Vale-Maurelli simulation approach? Psychometrika, 80(4), 1066-1083. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/s11336-014-9414-0")}

Foldnes, N., & Olsson, U. H. (2016). A simple simulation technique for nonnormal data with prespecified skewness, kurtosis, and covariance matrix. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 51(2-3), 207-219. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1080/00273171.2015.1133274")}

MacCallum, R. C. (2003). 2001 Presidential Address: Working with imperfect models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 38(1), 113-139. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1207/S15327906MBR3801_5")}

Olsson, U. (1979). Maximum likelihood estimation of the polychoric correlation coefficient. Psychometrika, 44(4), 443-460. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/BF02296207")}

Rubin, D. B. (1976). Inference and missing data. Biometrika, 63(3), 581-592. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1093/biomet/63.3.581")}

Ruscio, J., & Kaczetow, W. (2008). Simulating multivariate nonnormal data using an iterative algorithm. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 43(3), 355-381. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1080/00273170802285693")}

Tucker, L. R., Koopman, R. F., & Linn, R. L. (1969). Evaluation of factor analytic research procedures by means of simulated correlation matrices. Psychometrika, 34(4), 421-459. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/BF02290601")}

Vale, C. D., & Maurelli, V. A. (1983). Simulating multivariate nonnormal distributions. Psychometrika, 48(3), 465-471. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/BF02293687")}

Wu, H., & Browne, M. W. (2015). Quantifying adventitious error in a covariance structure as a random effect. Psychometrika, 80(3), 571-600. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1007/s11336-015-9451-3")}

See Also

efa_power(), whose simulation mode draws its replicate data sets with this function, and efa_fit() for analysing the simulated data.

Other data simulation: print.efa_simulated()

Examples

# Build a population from a shipped loading pattern and factor correlations
Lambda <- population_models$loadings$baseline
Phi <- population_models$phis_3$moderate

# Draw one normal dataset of 500 cases (the data live in $data)
sim <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi, seed = 42)
dim(sim$data)

# Return only the population correlation matrix
R_pop <- efa_simulate(Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi, return_pop = TRUE)$population

# Draw several datasets at once from a supplied correlation matrix
sims <- efa_simulate(N = 500, R = R_pop, n_datasets = 3, seed = 42)
length(sims$data)

# Reproduce the population correlation but with skewed, empirical marginals
# (here from a chi-squared source with one column per variable)
src <- matrix(rchisq(200 * nrow(Lambda), df = 3), ncol = nrow(Lambda))
dat_emp <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi,
                        marginals = "empirical", marginal_data = src, seed = 42)

# Draw skewed, leptokurtic data with the Vale-Maurelli method
dat_vm <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi, marginals = "VM",
                       skewness = 1.5, kurtosis = 4, seed = 42)

# Draw five-category ordinal data whose polychoric correlation matches R
dat_ord <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi,
                        categories = 5, match = "polychoric", seed = 42)

# Draw data with 15% missing at random, driven by a neighbouring item
dat_mar <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi, missing = "MAR",
                        missing_prop = 0.15, seed = 42)
colMeans(is.na(dat_mar$data))

# An ignorably MAR design: only the first nine items are holed, each driven by one of
# the last nine, which stay complete
dat_ign <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi, missing = "MAR",
                        missing_prop = 0.15, missing_vars = 1:9,
                        missing_predictor = 10:18, seed = 42)
colMeans(is.na(dat_ign$data))

# Add realistic model error: a population the model fits with RMSEA of about .05
# (Cudeck-Browne, the default method; the achieved fit is reported)
sim_me <- efa_simulate(N = 500, Lambda = Lambda, Phi = Phi,
                       target_rmsea = 0.05, seed = 42)
sim_me$model_error$rmsea

EFAtools documentation built on Aug. 21, 2026, 5:16 p.m.