age definition variables in linear growth model (individually-varying times of observation)

[ericlth...@gmail.com]

Hello, does lavaan have the option to set age as the time metric in a linear growth model, as individually-varying times of observation? These would age definition variables, where the slope factor loadings are fixed to each person's age at a given wave. An old post said this was not possible, wondering if it is now. Thanks!

[Terrence Jorgensen]

does lavaan have the option to set age as the time metric in a linear growth model, as individually-varying times of observation?

No, but OpenMx does (and Mplus via the TSCORES option).  If you are comfortable with Bayesian / MCMC estimation and a little programming effort, then you can specify a regular (fixed-loadings) growth model in the blavaan, save the JAGS or Stan syntax, and edit it to change the loadings from values to variables that are in your data.

Terrence D. Jorgensen

Postdoctoral Researcher, Methods and Statistics

Research Institute for Child Development and Education, the University of Amsterdam

http://www.uva.nl/profile/t.d.jorgensen