An Introduction to Latent Variable Growth Curve Modeling: Concepts, Issues, and Application, Second Edition

By Lisa A. Strycker, Terry E. Duncan, Susan C. Duncan

Book Overview

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to latent variable growth curve modeling (LGM) for analyzing repeated measures. It presents the statistical basis for LGM and its various methodological extensions, including a number of practical examples of its use. It is designed to take advantage of the reader's familiarity with analysis of variance and structural equation modeling (SEM) in introducing LGM techniques. Sample data, syntax, input and output, are provided for EQS, Amos, LISREL, and Mplus on the book's CD. Throughout the book, the authors present a variety of LGM techniques that are useful for many different research designs, and numerous figures provide helpful diagrams of the examples.

Updated throughout, the second edition features three new chapters--growth modeling with ordered categorical variables, growth mixture modeling, and pooled interrupted time series LGM approaches. Following a new organization, the book now covers the development of the LGM, followed by chapters on multiple-group issues (analyzing growth in multiple populations, accelerated designs, and multi-level longitudinal approaches), and then special topics such as missing data models, LGM power and Monte Carlo estimation, and latent growth interaction models. The model specifications previously included in the appendices are now available on the CD so the reader can more easily adapt the models to their own research.

This practical guide is ideal for a wide range of social and behavioral researchers interested in the measurement of change over time, including social, developmental, organizational, educational, consumer, personality and clinical psychologists, sociologists, and quantitative methodologists, as well as for a text on latent variable growth curve modeling or as a supplement for a course on multivariate statistics. A prerequisite of graduate level statistics is recommended.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805855467
• ISBN13: 9780805855463
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Easy to Learn LCM

A great second edition of a book that is easy to use. This book has proven to be very useful to graduate students learning Latent Curve Methods on their own as well as in a supportive classroom environment. The examples are well described and the theory is sufficient to inform almost any user. My students had success using every example then replicating that success with their own datasets.

Clear, easy to follow intro to LGCM theory and techniques

This is an excellent book for anyone who wishes to not only understand the theory behind latent growth curve modeling but also seeing how it is directly applied in a number of situations. For a reader like me who depends upon the literature to help understand newer statistical approaches, a book like this is a breath of fresh air. The book presents very clearly how to set up a basic LGC model and includes other topics such as dealing with missing data, interaction effects and multilevel approaches to longitudinal data analysis. The appendix contains a number of example LGCM models in the software language of EQS, LISREL and AMOS. I most highly recommend this text for beginners and more advanced modelers alike!