多水平模型(英文原著) chap6.doc

Chapter 6 Repeated measures data 6.1 Models for repeated measures When measurements are repeated on the same subjects, for example students or animals, a 2-level hierarchy is established with measurement repetitions or occasions as level 1 units and subjects as level 2 units. Such data are often referred to as ‘longitudinal’ as opposed to ‘cross-sectional’ where each subject is measured only once. Thus, we may have repeated measures of body weight on growing animals or children, repeated test scores on students or repeated interviews with survey respondents. It is important to distinguish two classes of models which use repeated measurements on the same subjects. In one, earlier measurements are treated as covariates rather than responses. This was done for the educational data analysed in chapters 2 and 3, and will often be more appropriate when there are a small number of discrete occasions and where different measures are used at each one. In the other, usually referred to as ‘repeated measures’ models, all the measurements are treated as responses, and it is this class of models we shall discuss here. A detailed description of the distinction between the former conditional models and the latter unconditional models can be found in Goldstein (1979) and Plewis (1985). We may also have repetition at higher levels of a data hierarchy. For example, we may have annual examination data on successive cohorts of 16-year-old students in a sample of schools. In this case the school is the level 3 unit, year is the level 2 unit and student the level 1 unit. We may even have a combination of repetitions at different levels: in the previous example, with the students themselves being measured on successive occasions during the years when they take their examination. We shall also look at an example where there are responses at both level 1 and level 2, that is specific to the occasion and to the subject. It is worth pointing out that in repeated measures models typically mos