umx: Twin and Path-based Structural Equation Modeling in R
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Genetics, Psychiatry and Psychology, Science and Medical Education, Statistics
- Keywords
- SEM, Behavior Genetics, Structural Equation Modelling, Twin-modeling, Rstats, diagramming, OpenMx, path models, twin models
- Copyright
- © 2017 Bates et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. umx: Twin and Path-based Structural Equation Modeling in R. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3354v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3354v1
Abstract
Structural equation modeling (SEM) is an important research tool, both for path-based model specification, common in the social sciences, and also matrix-based models in heavy use in behavior genetics. We developed umx to give more immediate access, concise syntax and helpful defaults for users in these two broad disciplines. umx supports development, modification, and comparison of models, as well as both graphical and tabular output. The second major focus of umx, behavior genetic models, is supported via functions implementing standard multi-group twin models. These functions support raw and covariance data, including joint ordinal data, and give solutions for ACE models including support for covariates, common- and independent-Pathway models, and Gene \(\times\) Environment interaction models. A tutorial site and question forum are also available.
Author Comment
This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints. The paper covers SEM modeling, and is under-review at Journal of Statistical Software (Sept 2017).