doc_estimator_paths: Shared documentation: estimator paths and defaults

In bifactory: (Bifactor) ESEM with Continuous (MLR) or Ordinal (WLSMV) Data

Shared documentation: estimator paths and defaults

Description

Shared documentation: estimator paths and defaults

Estimator paths

Continuous ESEM / B-ESEM

esem and besem use lavaan::cfa() with a native efa() block (integrated MLR estimation and rotation).

Ordered ESEM

esem(ordered = ...) calls esem_ordered. Default method = "lavaan" (lavaan WLSMV, efa() block, post-hoc rotation). method = "rotation" uses a custom DWLS pipeline (polychoric correlations + GPArotation).

Ordered B-ESEM

besem(ordered = ...) calls besem_ordered. Default method = "rotation" (custom DWLS/WLSMV + orthogonal targetT; this is what run_comparison uses for ordered data). method = "set-esem" fits a lavaan WLSMV bifactor CFA with non-primary specific loadings fixed at zero; it does not match Mplus B-ESEM loadings.

Multi-group invariance

esem_invariance uses lavaan multi-group efa() models plus explicit syntax patches for ordered B-ESEM. See that help page for scope limits.

Missing-data defaults

Defaults differ by entry point; pass missing explicitly when fitting ESEM and B-ESEM separately on the same ordered dataset.

• specify_model / run_comparison: "pairwise" for ordered data, "listwise" for continuous.

• esem_ordered: "pairwise".

• besem_ordered: "listwise" (pipeline still passes missing from the spec when used via run_comparison).

• esem / besem (continuous): "listwise".

The lavaan_fit slot on custom WLSMV fits

For besem_ordered(method = "rotation") and esem_ordered(method = "rotation"), $lavaan_fit is often an auxiliary one-factor WLSMV CFA used only to extract DWLS weight matrices—not the fitted ESEM/B-ESEM model. Use std_loadings, parameters, and fitMeasures(x) on the esem_fit wrapper; fitMeasures(x) reads wlsmv_stats when present. Do not interpret summary(x$lavaan_fit), modindices(x), or coef(x) as the rotated solution unless you know the fit used the lavaan efa() path (method = "lavaan" or method = "set-esem" for B-ESEM).

Heywood fix and loadings

When heywood_fix = TRUE (default on single-group esem and esem_ordered), std_loadings may reflect a post-hoc rotation correction while lavaan_fit still holds the pre-correction lavaan solution. Prefer std_loadings(x) for reported loadings in that case.

bifactory documentation built on Oct. 28, 2026, 1:06 a.m.