ABSTRACT
An interesting model for fixed-occasion panel data is the latent curve model (LCM). In the latent curve model, the measurement occasion variable is specified in the loadings of a confirmatory factor model. Thus, in a linear-growth model consecutive measurements are modeled by a latent variable for the intercept of the growth curve, and a second latent variable for the slope. The latent curve model is a single-level SEM, equivalent to the multilevel model for longitudinal data described in Chapter 5. This chapter points out the similarities to and differences with the longitudinal multilevel model.
