Abstract

Developmental research has a long history of stage-sequential theories, which suppose that development in one or more domains proceeds as sequences of qualitatively different stages. Latent transition analysis (LTA) is a quantitative method that is suited for the study of qualitative, stage-like development. LTA allows one to represent the heterogeneity in individual’s behaviour at different time points by a finite number of latent categories and to investigate how individuals transition from one category to another across time points. Recent advances are presented, which facilitate the incorporation into LTA of covariates and distal outcomes, modelling of interactions between covariates and latent variables, and the study of how transitions in one domain influence transitions in another related one.