Latent transition analysis: Guidelines and an application to emerging adults’ social development

The current paper aims to present a statistical technique — latent transition analysis (LTA) — as a useful tool for measuring qualitative developmental change. The paper is divided into three sections. In the first section, we introduce readers to LTA by describing the three methodological components of the technique: (1) the use of a person-centered approach; (2) the use of latent categorical variables; and (3) the use of a longitudinal study design. In the second section, we describe the 5-step analysis procedure required to create an LTA model and the conditional inclusion of covariates and outcomes in the LTA model. In the third section, we apply the technique to the social developmental process of emerging adults using Mplus.