ABSTRACT
Since the 1970s, the interest in studying change processes in the behavioral and educational sciences has rapidly increased. As a consequence, the number of utilized models of growth or decline has risen substantially as well. Among them, models based on the popular methodology of covariance structure analysis occupy a prominent place. Their wider application in social science research was initiated by pioneering articles by McArdle and colleagues in the 1980s and early 1990s (e.g., McArdle, 1988; McArdle & Aber, 1990; McArdle & Anderson, 1990; McArdle & Epstein, 1987). These and related models have received a comprehensive coverage in the latent curve analysis advanced by Meredith and Tisak (1990). Subsequently, dynamic models for change, developed within the covariance structure analysis methodology, have been proposed by Browne and DuToit (1991, 1992), Browne (1993), Muthén (1991, 1993), and Willett and Sayer (1994), to name a few.
