Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm a PhD student who is interested in the subject and wanted to do some background reading when I had a chance. I purchased a Kindle ebook because it seemed perfect -- cheap, portable reading. After receiving the book, I am very, very disappointed. The text is illegible. This is not the first time I have had problems with Amazon regarding their electronic book offerings... but it will be the last.
The results are horrible. The publisher (Sage) apparently just converted this to the Amazon book format without any concern for legibility or quality. The result is that all of the equations are blurry, and the subscripts and superscripts are completely illegible.
There are a number of problems with the Kindle edition that neither Amazon, nor the original publisher, seem to care about.
First, the equations in the text are too small to read. Additionally, they are contained in the text as images, so even if one tries to zoom in on an equation, you simply get a larger blurry image. (Hint: the publisher should use SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics and not a lossy image file format that they chose to use.) The size of the equations, which are inserted in the text as images, are the smallest font size possible, so even when you increase the font size, the equations remain at the smaller size (since they are captured as images).
In terms of the text, well, here too the Sage book falls flat. While Sage books are generally high quality it is often hit and miss as to whether the text of the booklet is a pleasurable read (whether or not it is an easy read is another matter!). The text overall is uninspiring but informative... however, given the problems with the equations just mentioned, there is no point in purchasing the book.
Do yourself a favour and take out any Sage books from the library. Don't bother with buying this.
By the way -- the sample version of this book does not contain any equations. It would have been nice if it did!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Latent Growth Curve Modeling (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)
Latent growth curve modeling (LGM)-a special case of confirmatory factor analysis designed to model change over time-is an indispensable and increasingly ubiquitous approach for modeling longitudinal data. This volume introduces LGM techniques to researchers, provides easy-to-follow, didactic examples of several common growth modeling approaches, and highlights recent advancements regarding the treatment of missing data, parameter estimation, and model fit. The book covers the basic linear LGM, and builds from there to describe more complex functional forms (e.g., polynomial latent curves), multivariate latent growth curves used to model simultaneous change in multiple variables, the inclusion of time-varying covariates, predictors of aspects of change, cohort-sequential designs, and multiple-group models. The authors also highlight approaches to dealing with missing data, different estimation methods, and incorporate discussion of model evaluation and comparison within the context of LGM. The models demonstrate how they may be applied to longitudinal data derived from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD).. Key Features
· Provides easy-to-follow, didactic examples of several common growth modeling approaches
· Highlights recent advancements regarding the treatment of missing data, parameter estimation, and model fit
· Explains the commonalities and differences between latent growth model and multilevel modeling of repeated measures data
· Covers the basic linear latent growth model, and builds from there to describe more complex functional forms such as polynomial latent curves, multivariate latent growth curves, time-varying covariates, predictors of aspects of change, cohort-sequential designs, and multiple-group models
Buy cheap Latent Growth Curve Modeling (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences) now.
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