Hi there,

I have trouble in conducting a simple confirmatory factor analysis using SEM function in Stata. I have seen previous posts related to this issue but seems mine is a bit different.


CFA on SEM model builder was specified using 10 items identifying 2 factors but the output just below the output says me " Note: The Discr. test of model vs. saturated is not reported because the fitted model is not full rank.
Warning: convergence not achieved"

Finally, Stata gives me option of "Estimation did not converge. Show results anyway?"

I think if the model is not convergence, I don't see the point to get the estimation and even the model fit won't gives the correct and full results. Just to give you mode idea, each item was assessed on a 5-point scale and the vast majority respondents reported 4 or 5 out of the possible 5 options, which I think less variability in the responses but not sure tis is the reason for not converging.


I used the below syntax:

sem (Factor_1 -> Item_1, ) (Factor_1 -> Item_2, ) (Factor_1 -> Item_3, ) (Factor_1 -> Item_4, ) (Factor_1 -> Item_9, ) (Factor_1 -> Item_10, ) (Factor_2 -> Item_5, ) (Factor_2 -> Item_6, ) (Factor_2 -> Item_7, ) (Factor_2 -> Item_8, ), covstruct(_lexogenous, diagonal) iterate(100) latent(Factor_1 Factor_2 ) cov( e.Item_1*e.Item_2 e.Item_1*e.Item_3 e.Item_1*e.Item_4 e.Item_1*e.Item_9 e.Item_1*e.Item_10 e.Item_1*e.Item_5 e.Item_1*e.Item_6 e.Item_1*e.Item_7 e.Item_1*e.Item_8 e.Item_2*e.Item_3 e.Item_2*e.Item_4 e.Item_2*e.Item_9 e.Item_2*e.Item_10 e.Item_2*e.Item_5 e.Item_2*e.Item_6 e.Item_2*e.Item_7 e.Item_2*e.Item_8 e.Item_3*e.Item_4 e.Item_3*e.Item_9 e.Item_3*e.Item_10 e.Item_3*e.Item_5 e.Item_3*e.Item_6 e.Item_3*e.Item_7 e.Item_3*e.Item_8 e.Item_4*e.Item_9 e.Item_9*e.Item_10 e.Item_9*e.Item_5 e.Item_9*e.Item_6 e.Item_9*e.Item_7 e.Item_9*e.Item_8 e.Item_10*e.Item_5 e.Item_10*e.Item_6 e.Item_10*e.Item_7 e.Item_10*e.Item_8 e.Item_5*e.Item_6 e.Item_5*e.Item_7 e.Item_5*e.Item_8 e.Item_6*e.Item_7 e.Item_6*e.Item_8 e.Item_7*e.Item_8 Factor_1*Factor_2) nocapslatent


Can someone please provide suggestion why CFA -SEM not converging and other possible option I should consider to resolve this issue.


Much appreciation in advance!

Liyu