Almost all goodness-of-fit indexes (GFIs) for latent variable structural equation models are global GFIs that simultaneously assess the fits of the measurement and structural portions of the model. In one sense, this is an elegant feature of overall model GFIs, but in another sense, it is unfortunate as the fits of the 2 different portions of the model cannot be assessed independently. We (a) review the developing literature on this issue, (b) propose 6 new GFIs that are designed to evaluate the structural portion of latent variable models independently of the measurement model, (c) that are couched within a general taxonomy of James, Mulaik, and Brett's (1982) Conditions 9 and 10 for causal inference from nonexperimental data, (d) conduct a Monte Carlo simulation of the usefulness of these 6 new GFIs for model selection, and (e) on the basis of simulation results provide recommended criteria for 4 of them. Supplemental analyses also compare 2 of the new GFIs to 2 other structural model selection strategies currently in use. (PsycINFO Database Record
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.