Latent Profile Analysis

Latent profile analysis is a methodological technique used to identify groups of individuals or other targets (e.g., organizations) that share similar relationships between variables. It is a form of latent variable mixture modeling (i.e., using both categorical and continuous or dichotomous variables), also known as latent class cluster analysis and latent class analysis. It falls into a group of techniques referred to as person-centered or configural, which refers to patterns of variables that reside within individuals rather than the variables themselves. It is similar to cluster analysis in that it identifies groups of observations that are similar but is different from cluster analysis in that it is model-based. The analysis is similar to factor analysis in that the relationships between variables can be explained by ...