Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology
Title
Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology
Creator
Schlomer GL; Bauman S; Card NA
Identifier
Publisher
Journal Of Counseling Psychology
Date
2010
Subject
Humans; Bias (Epidemiology); Statistical; Counseling/statistics & numerical data; Data Interpretation; Research Design/standards; Data Collection/standards; Likelihood Functions; Missing Data Articles; Psychology/statistics & numerical data
Description
This article urges counseling psychology researchers to recognize and report how missing data are handled, because consumers of research cannot accurately interpret findings without knowing the amount and pattern of missing data or the strategies that were used to handle those data. Patterns of missing data are reviewed, and some of the common strategies for dealing with them are described. The authors provide an illustration in which data were simulated and evaluate 3 methods of handling missing data: mean substitution, multiple imputation, and full information maximum likelihood. Results suggest that mean substitution is a poor method for handling missing data, whereas both multiple imputation and full information maximum likelihood are recommended alternatives to this approach. The authors suggest that researchers fully consider and report the amount and pattern of missing data and the strategy for handling those data in counseling psychology research and that editors advise researchers of this expectation.
2010
Rights
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Type
Journal Article
Citation List Month
Backlog
URL Address
Citation
Schlomer GL; Bauman S; Card NA, “Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed February 14, 2025, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/14315.