Mplus Users Guide v6.. - Muthén & Muthén

CHAPTER 17DEPENDENT OR INDEPENDENT VARIABLESObserved and latent variables can play the role of a dependent variableor an independent variable in the model. The distinction betweendependent and independent variables is that of a regression analysis for yregressed on x where y is a dependent variable and x is an independentvariable. An independent variable is one that is not influenced by anyother variable. Dependent variables are those that are influenced byother variables. Other terms used for dependent variables are outcomevariable, response variable, indicator variable, y variable, andendogenous variable. Other terms used for independent variables arecovariate, background variable, explanatory variable, predictor, xvariable, and exogenous variable.SCALE OF OBSERVED DEPENDENT VARIABLESThe scale of observed dependent variables can be continuous, censored,binary, ordered categorical (ordinal), unordered categorical (nominal),counts, or combinations of these variable types.UNDERLYING GENERAL MODELThe purpose of modeling data is to describe the structure of a data set ina simple way so that it is more understandable and interpretable.Essentially, modeling data amounts to specifying a set of relationshipsbetween variables.The underlying model of Mplus consists of three parts: the measurementmodel for the indicators of the continuous latent variables, themeasurement model for the indicators of the categorical latent variables,and the structural model involving the continuous and categorical latentvariables and the observed variables that are not indicators of thecontinuous or categorical latent variables. A model may consist of onlya measurement model as in confirmatory factor analysis or latent classanalysis, only a structural model as in a path analysis, or both ameasurement model and a structural model as in latent variablestructural equation modeling, longitudinal growth modeling, regressionmixture modeling, or growth mixture modeling.568