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3 level Longitudinal MLM - SEM

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timothyslau@gmail.com's picture
Joined: 10/20/2014 - 00:25
3 level Longitudinal MLM - SEM

I have data with Counties nested within States over Time. I have been told that OpenMX is unable to run a three level MLM SEM and I need to use M+.

Can someone either confirm this for me or point me in the direction of some example code in OpenMX?

mhunter's picture
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Joined: 07/31/2009 - 15:26
Depends

Depending on the model of interest, it might be possible in OpenMx. You can do 2-level multilevel models in OpenMx as state space models. You can do 3-level multilevel models in the same way if the level 1 model is in "wide" format. As an example, a latent growth curve model is a 2-level multilevel model where level 1 is in wide format. So, you could do a 3-level model of the growth of children over time where the children are nested within classrooms (three levels: time, child, classroom).

Here's an example of a 2-level multilevel model in state space form: https://github.com/OpenMx/OpenMx/blob/master/inst/models/nightly/MultilevelStateSpaceEx5.R

You could make it a 3-level model as described above by modifying the "WITHIN" (lines 61-65) model to be a latent growth curve instead of a factor model.

So it should be possible. With that said, it would likely be easier in another program.

Hope this helps!