Solved – Regression model for ordinal dependent variable and categorical independent variables

ordinal-datarr-squaredregression

If I'm using R, which regression model should I use for my dataset? (I need to get the R-squared value.) I have 1 dependent variable and 6 independent variables as follows:

1 dependent variable:

  • concern {-2, -1, 0, 1, 2}

6 independent variables:

  • org { scl_msg, scl_pg, fin}
  • type_d { prsnl, activ, log}
  • type_f { x-t, user-x, t-x}
  • gender { male, female}
  • age { 18-25, 26-30 , 31-35, 36-40, 40+}
  • awareness { fully-aware , partially-aware, not-aware}

Best Answer

You will be best off using ordinal logistic regression. There are at least four ways to do this in R (meaning different functions in different packages). The uniformly excellent UCLA statistics help site has a fairly comprehensive tutorial (albeit using only polr in MASS) here. There is a nice overview of the different possibilities here (it is primarily code you can run, with less explanation).

Note that there isn't really such a thing as R-squared for generalized linear models such as ordinal logistic regression. There are a number of so-called pseudo R-squareds, but it is important to understand what each one measures (there is a nice guide here), and their value is debatable (for an overview of the issues, see this excellent CV thread: Which pseudo $R^2$ is the one to report for logistic regression).

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