Question: Can you talk more about categorical and repeated Time? If I have 5 waves at ages 0, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and 9 years, would that be categorical or repeated? Does mixed account for different spacing in time?
Mixed models can account for different spacing in time and you’re right, it entirely depends on whether you treat Time as categorical or continuous.
First let me mention that not all designs can treat time as either categorical or continuous. The reason it could go either way in your example is because time is measured discretely, yet there are enough numerical values that you could fit a line to it. [Read more…] about Can I Treat 5 Waves of Repeated Measurements as Categorical or Continuous?