Cluster means for latent factor PreviousNext
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 Arena posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 12:32 pm
I am comparing two ways of measuring classrooms--individual student perception of the classroom vs. a classroom (cluster) average of student perception.

I am using latent factors to measure individual student perception of the classroom.

For the classroom average, I want to create a cluster average of the classmates' latent factor scores.

I have tried using this syntax but isn't worked for me in the "Define" and "Model" sections:

newvar = CLUSTER_MEAN (latentvar);

Where does this command belong in the input file?

Thank you in advance.
 Arena posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 1:05 pm
Also, I would like to create an interaction term between the student-level latent factors. I tried using the XWITH command with two continuous latent factors, however that requires TYPE = RANDOM. I'm currently using TYPE=COMPLEX because I would like to take student nesting within classrooms into account and to adjust the standard errors. Is there a way of creating interaction terms between continuous latent variables without sacrificing the CLUSTER command or TYPE=COMPLEX?

Thank you again,
Arena
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Thursday, November 08, 2012 - 2:07 pm
The CLUSTER_MEAN option is for observed variables only. It is part of the DEFINE command.

You can use TYPE=COMPLEX RANDOM.
 Arena posted on Sunday, November 11, 2012 - 6:17 pm
Thank you for the prompt responses. Is there another way to create cluster averages from latent variables?
 Linda K. Muthen posted on Monday, November 12, 2012 - 11:03 am
What you should do is create a factor on between using the between part of the factor indicators. This latent variable decomposition is described in Example 9.2. It is used in a CFA in Example 9.6.
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