The Second Week of the 6th LCSR Summer School Has Begun

The main course “Latent curve models: a structural equation perspective” was given during the second week of the 6th LCSR Summer School by professor Kenneth Bollen (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA). Irina Vartanova (LCSR, Associate Researcher, St. Petersburg, Russia) assisted the participants to work through the material.

There were two lectures and one practical session each day. On the first day, the professor provided an overview of latent curve models from a structural equation modeling perspective. In contrast to the majority of other methods for longitudinal and panel data analysis, latent curve models predict the values of a dependent variable not on the basis of the value in the preceding time point estimated for the whole sample but rather on the individual trajectory estimated on the basis of all available time points. Parameters for each sample unit are treated as latent variables. Besides, the lecturer discussed the main questions and problems associated with latent curve modeling and its applications to social science research.