Use
the assignment 1 LSAY data to carry out growth mixture modeling of the math
achievement scores for grades 7 – 12.
Use the two covariates gender and expect, where the definition of expect
is as follows:
expect = Student's educational expectations (1=HS only, 2=Vocational training, 3=some college, 4=Bachelor's, 5=Master's, 6=Dr, PhD). Asked in 7th grade.
As background for this assignment, read the Muthen (2004) article on the course web site, Latent Variable Analysis: Growth Mixture Modeling and Related Techniques for Longitudinal Data. This article analyzes the grade 7 – 10 math scores and relates them to several covariates and the distal outcome of high school dropout.
Decide on the number of classes for the grade 7 – 12 trajectories. Do not use listwise deletion since many students have missing data in grades 11 and 12. Use both GMM and LCGA and compare the model fit. Use graphics to study the mixture solutions. Classify individuals into their most likely class membership and relate the classes to interesting variables not used in the modeling (for example, high school dropout is lloctn = 4). Interpret the solution and describe the quality of it, including the possibility to use the model for early classification into a failing class.