ERIC Number: ED599384
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 73
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Fully Conditional Specification Approach to Multilevel Imputation of Categorical and Continuous Variables
Enders, Craig K.; Keller, Brian T.; Levy, Roy
Grantee Submission
Specialized imputation routines for multilevel data are widely available in software packages, but these methods are generally not equipped to handle a wide range of complexities that are typical of behavioral science data. In particular, existing imputation schemes differ in their ability to handle random slopes, categorical variables, differential relations at level-1 and level-2, and incomplete level-2 variables. Given the limitations of existing imputation tools, the purpose of this manuscript is to describe a flexible imputation approach that can accommodate a diverse set of two-level analysis problems that includes any of the aforementioned features. The procedure employs a fully conditional specification (also known as chained equations) approach with a latent variable formulation for handling incomplete categorical variables. Computer simulations suggest that the proposed procedure works quite well, with trivial biases in most cases. We provide a software program that implements the imputation strategy, and we use an artificial data set to illustrate its use. [This paper was published in "Psychological Methods" v23 n2 p298-317 2018.]
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305D150056
Author Affiliations: N/A