# blavaan

blavaan is a free, open source R package for Bayesian latent variable
analysis. It relies on JAGS and Stan to estimate models via MCMC.

The blavaan functions and syntax are similar to lavaan. For example,
consider the Political Democracy example from Bollen (1989):

``` r

library(lavaan) # for the PoliticalDemocracy data
library(blavaan)

model <- '
   # latent variable definitions
     ind60 =~ x1 + x2 + x3
     dem60 =~ y1 + y2 + y3 + y4
     dem65 =~ y5 + y6 + y7 + y8
   # regressions
     dem60 ~ ind60
     dem65 ~ ind60 + dem60
   # residual covariances
     y1 ~~ y5
     y2 ~~ y4 + y6
     y3 ~~ y7
     y4 ~~ y8
     y6 ~~ y8
'
fit <- bsem(model, data = PoliticalDemocracy)
summary(fit)
```

The development version of blavaan (containing updates not yet on CRAN)
can be installed via the command below. Compilation is required; this
may be a problem for users who currently rely on a binary version of
blavaan from CRAN. A potential alternative is to install a binary from
[R-universe.](https://ecmerkle.r-universe.dev/blavaan)

``` r

remotes::install_github("ecmerkle/blavaan", INSTALL_opts = "--no-multiarch")
```

For further information, see:

Merkle, E. C., Fitzsimmons, E., Uanhoro, J., & Goodrich, B. (2021).
[Efficient Bayesian structural equation modeling in
Stan](https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v100.i06). Journal of Statistical
Software, 100(6), 1–22.

Merkle, E. C., & Rosseel, Y. (2018). [blavaan: Bayesian structural
equation models via parameter
expansion](https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v085.i04). Journal of
Statistical Software, 85(4), 1–30.

blavaan has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.
Department of Education, Grant R305D210044, as well as NSF grants
SES-1061334 and 1460719.

# Package index

## All functions

- [`bcfa()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/bcfa.md) : Fit Confirmatory
  Factor Analysis Models
- [`bgrowth()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/bgrowth.md) : Fit Growth
  Curve Models
- [`blavCompare()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavCompare.md) :
  Bayesian model comparisons
- [`blavFitIndices()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavFitIndices.md)
  [`summary(`*`<blavFitIndices>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavFitIndices.md)
  [`summary(`*`<bfi>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavFitIndices.md)
  : SEM Fit Indices for Bayesian SEM
- [`blavInspect()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavInspect.md)
  [`blavTech()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavInspect.md) : Inspect
  or Extract Information from a Fitted blavaan Object
- [`blavPredict()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavPredict.md) :
  Predict the values of latent variables, observed variables, and
  missing variables.
- [`blav_internal`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`blav_model_test`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`coeffun`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`set_phantoms`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`set_inits`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`set_priors`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md)
  [`labelfun`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blav_internal.md) : blavaan
  internal functions
- [`blavaan-class`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan-class.md)
  [`coef,blavaan-method`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan-class.md)
  [`show,blavaan-method`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan-class.md)
  [`predict,blavaan-method`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan-class.md)
  [`summary,blavaan-method`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan-class.md)
  : Class For Representing A (Fitted) Bayesian Latent Variable Model
- [`blavaan()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/blavaan.md) : Fit a
  Bayesian Latent Variable Model
- [`bsem()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/bsem.md) : Fit Structural
  Equation Models
- [`dpriors()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/dpriors.md) : Specify
  Default Prior Distributions
- [`glance(`*`<blavaan>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/glance.blavaan.md)
  : Glance at a blavaan object
- [`plot(`*`<blavaan>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/plot.blavaan.md)
  : blavaan Diagnostic Plots
- [`ppmc()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md)
  [`summary(`*`<blavPPMC>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md)
  [`summary(`*`<ppmc>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md)
  [`plot(`*`<blavPPMC>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md)
  [`hist(`*`<blavPPMC>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md)
  [`pairs(`*`<blavPPMC>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/ppmc.md) :
  Posterior Predictive Model Checks
- [`sampleData()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/sampleData.md) : Sample
  data from the posterior (or prior) distribution.
- [`standardizedPosterior()`](https://blavaan.org/reference/standardizedPosterior.md)
  : Standardized Posterior
- [`tidy(`*`<blavaan>`*`)`](https://blavaan.org/reference/tidy.blavaan.md)
  : Tidy a blavaan object

# Articles

### All vignettes

- [Approximate fit indices](https://blavaan.org/articles/approx_fi.md):
- [Convergence and Efficiency
  Evaluation](https://blavaan.org/articles/convergence_efficiency.md):
- [Convergence loop](https://blavaan.org/articles/convergence_loop.md):
- [Cross-loadings with strong
  priors](https://blavaan.org/articles/cross_loadings_strong_priors.md):
- [Model Estimation](https://blavaan.org/articles/estimate.md):
- [Measurement Invariance](https://blavaan.org/articles/invariance.md):
- [Modification indices](https://blavaan.org/articles/mod_indices.md):
- [Model Comparison](https://blavaan.org/articles/model_comparison.md):
- [Two-level SEM](https://blavaan.org/articles/multilevel.md):
- [Ordinal Models in blavaan](https://blavaan.org/articles/ordinal.md):
- [Plot Functionality](https://blavaan.org/articles/plotting.md):
- [Prior Predictive
  Checks](https://blavaan.org/articles/prior_pred_checks.md):
- [Specifying Prior
  Distributions](https://blavaan.org/articles/prior.md):
- [Probability of
  Direction](https://blavaan.org/articles/probability_direction.md):
- [Resources](https://blavaan.org/articles/resources.md):
- [Getting Started with blavaan](https://blavaan.org/articles/start.md):
- [Model Summaries](https://blavaan.org/articles/summaries.md):