Case studies in combining sequence analysis and modelling

Abstract

<p>This methodological paper presents three case studies of life course analysis<br />in which the clustering of the sequences and probabilistic modelling have been<br />combined or contrasted when analysing a particular research question. Latent variable<br />hierarchical modelling is used in various ways to account for correlation in<br />multidimensional response variables and to model underlying structures in the life<br />course. We conclude that, while sequence analysis allows to use multidimensional<br />and time-dependent criteria either for comparing life patterns of groups of individuals<br />or to extract subgroups for further analysis, the SA outcome may be rather<br />unspecific for causal-like questions.<br /></p>