Dangers of including outcome at baseline as a covariate in latent change score models: Results from simulations and empirical re-analyses

Abstract

Latent change score modeling is a type of structural equation modeling used for estimating change over time. Often change is regressed on the initial value of the outcome variable. However, similarly to other regression analyses, this procedure may be susceptible to regression to the mean. The present study employed simulations as well as re-analyses of previously published data, claimed to indicate reciprocal promoting effects of vocabulary and matrix reasoning on each other's longitudinal development. Both in simulations and empirical re-analyses, when adjusting for initial value on the outcome, latent change score modeling tended to indicate an effect of a predictor on the change in an outcome even when no change had taken place. Furthermore, analyses tended to indicate a paradoxical effect on change both forward and backward in time. We conclude that results from latent change score modeling are susceptible to regression to the mean when adjusting for the initial value on the outcome. Researchers are recommended not to regress change on the initial value included in the calculation of the change score when employing latent change score modeling but, instead, to define this parameter as a covariance.