Path analysis (Asher,1976) is usually carried out in causal systems of continuous variables,i.e.Linear Structural Equation Model (LISREL) (Bentler & Weeks,1980; J(o)reskog & S(o)rbom,1989).In comparison with path analysis of continuous variables,that of categorical variables is complex (Goodman 1973 a,b),and it is a question how the effects of variables are measured.Eshima et al.(2001) proposed a method of path analysis of categorical variables by using logit models.In this approach,the direct and indirect effects of variables are discussed according to log odds ratios;however the results are also complex and it is required to make a summary measure for path analysis of categorical variables.In order to assess the effects of factors or explanatory variables in generalized linear models (GLM) (Nelder & Wedderburn,1972),this paper proposes a basic method to assess the effects of factors in GLMs by using the entropy correlation coefficient (ECC) (Eshima & Tabata,2007,2010).