st: odd behavior of -sem- in Stata 13

[Lance Erickson <lance_erickson@byu.edu>]

Has anyone experienced problems estimating SEM models in Stata 13 that ran without problems in Stata 12 (Windows 7)?

I had prepared some analyses that were successfully estimated by Stata 12 and now going back to them after installing Stata 13 there are some problems. Here's the code... 

********
sem (tenure skdis5r dauthority managersup satcowr satjobr <- WRKCNTXT) ///
	(meaningful <- WRKCNTXT) ///
	(perform <- marital WRKCNTXT meaningful) 
	if creative==1, ///
		covstr(e.satcowr e.satjobr, unstructured) ///
		covstr(e.satcowr e.managersupp, unstructured) ///
		covstr(e.dauthority e.satjobr, unstructured) ///
	method(mlmv)
********

And here is the error I get ...

********
note: The following observed variable name will be treated as a latent variable: ANsample.  If this is not your intention use the nocapslatent option, or identify the latent variable names in the latent() option.
latent variable 'ANsample' not referenced in the model
r(198);
********

The model does run in Stata 13 if I identify the latent variable in the -latent()- option as suggested by the error message. But, the SEM manual says that the command should identify variables as latent if the first letter is capitalized. Just to check, I did manage to access Stata 12 and run the exact same command runs fine without the -latent()- option. Could this be a feature change across the versions or is it a bug?

What seems particularly odd to me is that I was able to get Stata 13 to estimate the models by deleting any variables from the data set that weren't included in the model. I didn't need to add the -latent()- option either. I'm deleting many variables when I do this and I haven't taken the time to explore whether it's a single variable or set of variables that need to be deleted.

Again, does anyone know if there are known bugs with -sem- in Stata 13 that might account for this? Or am I ignorant to some new feature?

Best,
Lance

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