• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.15-35
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• 2020

In research on behavioral studies, significant attention has been paid to the stage-sequential process for multiple latent class variables. We now explore the stage-sequential process of multiple latent class variables using the multivariate latent class profile analysis (MLCPA). A latent profile variable, representing the stage-sequential process in MLCPA, is formed by a set of repeatedly measured categorical response variables. This paper proposes the extended MLCPA in order to explain an association between the latent profile variable and the latent group variable as a form of a two-dimensional contingency table. We applied the extended MLCPA to the National Longitudinal Survey on Youth 1997 (NLSY97) data to investigate the association between of developmental progression of depression and substance use behaviors among adolescents who experienced Authoritarian parental styles in their youth.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.709-719
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• 2011

We investigate the latent stage-sequential patterns of drinking behaviors of U.S. adolescents who have started to drink by age 14 years (seven years before the legal drinking age). A multiple-group latent transition analysis(LTA) with logistic regression is employed to identify the subsequent patterns of drinking behaviors among early-onset drinkers. A sample of 1407 early-onset adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth(NLSY97) is analyzed using maximum-likelihood estimation. The analysis demonstrates that early-onset adolescents' drinking behaviors can be represented by four latent classes and their prevalence and transition are influenced by demographic factors of gender, age, and race.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.131-146
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• 2016

In research on behavioral studies, significant attention has been paid to the stage-sequential process for longitudinal data. Latent class profile analysis (LCPA) is an useful method to study sequential patterns of the behavioral development by the two-step identification process: identifying a small number of latent classes at each measurement occasion and two or more homogeneous subgroups in which individuals exhibit a similar sequence of latent class membership over time. Maximum likelihood (ML) estimates for LCPA are easily obtained by expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, and Bayesian inference can be implemented via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). However, unusual properties in the likelihood of LCPA can cause difficulties in ML and Bayesian inference as well as estimation in small samples. This article describes and addresses erratic problems that involve conventional ML and Bayesian estimates for LCPA with small samples. We argue that these problems can be alleviated with a small amount of prior input. This study evaluates the performance of likelihood and MCMC-based estimates with the proposed prior in drawing inference over repeated sampling. Our simulation shows that estimates from the proposed methods perform better than those from the conventional ML and Bayesian method.