A three-stage estimation procedure for structural equation models with polytomous variables

This paper is concerned with the analysis of structural equation models with polytomous variables. A computationally efficient three-stage estimator of the thresholds and the covariance structure parameters, based on partition maximum likelihood and generalized least squares estimation, is proposed. An example is presented to illustrate the method.This research was supported in part by a research grant DA01070 from the U.S. Public Health Service. The production assistance of Julie Speckart is gratefully acknowledged.