We also estimated the neighboring Level 1 two- and four-class nonparametric random effects models. The model with three Level 1 classes appears to be superior, showing a substantial decline over the model with two Level 1 classes, maintaining a high entropy value, and providing the most substantively interesting solution.
As a final step, we examined the inclusion of a common Level 2 factor for the individual indicators making up the Level 1 latent class model. For both the parametric (Models 5 and 6) and nonparametric approach (Model 7a and 7b), these models represented a marked