This is not an imputation question, but I don't know of a list serve for 
complex modeling questions.  Maybe one of you will be able to help.

Consider a mixed binary-normal distribution that results in a large point mass 
on the edge of an otherwise more-or-less normal distribution.  An example is 
number of alcoholic drinks per day.  Cigarettes per day is another example. Or 
the number of questions reading questions answered correctly on a sample that 
contains a large number of children who can't read at all.  The child reading 
example is my real concern because the children come grouped by school.  

Anyone know of robustness studies of MLwin, HLM, Mixed, MPLUS, et cetera to 
this radical departure from normality?  I have heard it asserted that 
school-level departures from normality are more of a concern than student-level 
departures, but is this too much of a departure?  


David Judkins 
Senior Statistician 
Westat 
1650 Research Boulevard 
Rockville, MD 20850 
(301) 315-5970 
[email protected]

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