Mplus Users Guide v6.. - Muthén & Muthén

TITLE, DATA, VARIABLE, And DEFINE Commandsformat where time points represent age or another time-related variable.It is available only for continuous outcomes. Multiple cohort analysis isdescribed in Chapter 14.The new variables must be placed on the USEVARIABLES statement ofthe VARIABLE command if they are used in the analysis.These variables must come after any original variables. The creation ofthe new variables in the DATA COHORT command occurs after anytransformations in the DEFINE command. Following is a description ofthe options used in the DATA COHORT command.COHORTThe COHORT option is used when data have been collected using amultiple cohort design. The COHORT option is used in conjunctionwith the TIMEMEASURES and TNAMES options that are describedbelow. Variables used with the COHORT option must be variables fromthe NAMES statement of the VARIABLE command. Following is anexample of how the COHORT option is specified:COHORT IS birthyear (63 64 65);where birthyear is a variable in the data set to be analyzed, and thenumbers in parentheses following the variable name are the values thatthe birthyear variable contains. Birth years of 1963, 1964, and 1965 areincluded in the example below. The cohort variable must contain onlyinteger values.COPATTERNThe COPATTERN option is used when data are both missing by designand have been collected using a multiple cohort design. Variables usedwith the COPATTERN option must be variables from the NAMESstatement of the VARIABLE command. Following is an example ofhow the COPATTERN option is specified:COPATTERN = cohort (67=y1 y2 y3 68=y4 y5 y6 69=y2 y3 y4);where cohort is a variable that provides information about both thecohorts included in the data set and the patterns of variables for each477