McCormick Ethan M, Bauer Daniel J
Methodology and Statistics Department, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Psychol Methods. 2024 Sep 19. doi: 10.1037/met0000663.
There have been long and bitter debates between those who advocate for the use of residualized change as the foundation of longitudinal models versus those who utilize difference scores. However, these debates have focused primarily on modeling change in the outcome variable. Here, we extend these same ideas to the covariate side of the change equation, finding similar issues arise when using lagged versus difference scores as covariates of interest in models of change. We derive a system of relationships that emerge across models differing in how time-varying covariates are represented, and then demonstrate how the set of logical transformations emerges in applied longitudinal settings. We conclude by considering the practical implications of a synthesized understanding of the effects of difference scores as both outcomes and predictors, with specific consequences for mediation analysis within multivariate longitudinal models. Our results suggest that there is reason for caution when using difference scores as time-varying covariates, given their propensity for inducing apparent inferential inversions within different analyses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
在主张使用残差变化作为纵向模型基础的人，与使用差异分数的人之间，一直存在着长期而激烈的争论。然而，这些争论主要集中在对结果变量变化的建模上。在此，我们将同样的理念扩展到变化方程的协变量方面，发现在使用滞后分数与差异分数作为变化模型中感兴趣的协变量时，会出现类似的问题。我们推导了一系列关系，这些关系出现在因如何表示随时间变化的协变量而不同的模型中，然后展示了在应用纵向研究中逻辑转换集是如何出现的。我们通过考虑综合理解差异分数作为结果和预测变量的影响的实际意义来得出结论，这对多变量纵向模型中的中介分析有特定影响。我们的结果表明，鉴于差异分数在不同分析中容易引发明显的推断反转，在将其用作随时间变化的协变量时需要谨慎。（《心理学文摘数据库记录》（c）2024美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
