IBM® SPSS® Amos™ 28

CMIN/DF is the minimum discrepancy, , (see Appendix B) divided by its degrees of freedom:

.

Several writers have suggested the use of this ratio as a measure of fit. For every estimation criterion except for Uls and Sls, the ratio should be close to one for correct models. The trouble is that it isn't clear how far from one you should let the ratio get before concluding that a model is unsatisfactory.

Rules of thumb:

▪"...Wheaton et al. (1977) suggest that the researcher also compute a relative chi-square () .... They suggest a ratio of approximately five or less 'as beginning to be reasonable.' In our experience, however, to degrees of freedom ratios in the range of 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 are indicative of an acceptable fit between the hypothetical model and the sample data." (Carmines and McIver, 1981, page 80)

▪"... different researchers have recommended using ratios as low as 2 or as high as 5 to indicate a reasonable fit." (Marsh & Hocevar, 1985).

▪"... it seems clear that a ratio > 2.00 represents an inadequate fit." (Byrne, 1989, p. 55).

Use the \cmindf text macro to display CMIN/DF on a path diagram.