Normal theory maximum likelihood (ML) is by far the most popular estimation and testing method used in structural equation modeling (SEM), and it is the default in most SEM programs. Even though this approach assumes multivariate normality of the data, its use can be justified on the grounds that it is fairly robust to the violations of the…

This article proposes a new approach to the statistical analysis of pairwisepresent covariance structure data. The estimator is based on maximizing the complete data likelihood function, and the associated test statistic and standard errors are corrected for misspecification using Satorra-Bentler corrections. A Monte Carlo study was conducted to…