Chair: Christian Dormann, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Date: May 21st, 2025
Time: 9:00 – 16:00 (Full-day session)
Price: 80 EUR
Capacity: 25 People
In the last 10 years, continuous time structural equation modeling (CTSEM) has made the possibilities for analyzing longitudinal data considerably more flexible. Among other things, CTSEM allows the analysis of data sets with intraindividually and interindividually varying time intervals, longitudinal moderator analyses, and provides the basis for meta-analysis of longitudinal primary studies. Diary data can serve as a basis as well as data from classic longitudinal designs with two or more measurement time points. Participants can bring their own data – it is recommended to get in touch beforehand (cdormann@uni-mainz.de). The workshop is primarily application-oriented. The theoretical introduction is limited to about 45min. For mathematical details, I can carry forward participants to Voelkle et al. (2012) or Driver and Voelkle (2021). It should be noted that the procedures described there (for using the R package ctsem) do not exactly correspond to the current state.
Main learning objectives
- Understanding the relation between discrete time SEM and CTSEM
- Preprocessing data for CTSEM, & specifying, fitting and interpreting CTSEM models and results
Prerequisites:
- Installation of R and R-Studio on your own notebook computer, but no R knowledge necessary.
- Basic (is sufficient) knowledge of SEM. Knowledge of multi-level modeling is beneficial, but not required.
Optional:
- Own diary data (ideally – but not necessarily – with varying survey times or time points) or longitudinal data (min. 2 waves with 2 variables, ideally > 2). Additional data sets are provided for exercises.
Workshop Program:
9:00 – 9:40 Theoretical Foundations of CTSEM
9:50 – 10:20 Conceptual considerations: when, how frequently, and what to measure
10:30 – 11:00 Preparing data for ctsem (long format, wide format, missing values, time points vs. time intervals)
11:10 – 11:30 Demonstration: A simple but wildly applicable CTSEM
11.40 – 12.15 Exercise: Model setup and interpretation of output
12.15 – 13.15 Lunch Break
13:15 – 13:30 Plotting effect trajectories across time
13.35 – 14.00 Demonstration: Random intercept models
14.00 – 14.20 Exercise: Random intercept models
14:30 – 15:00 Demonstration: Moderator models with continuous moderators
15.10 – 15.40 Exercise: Moderator models with categorical moderators
15.45 – 16.00 Q&A