Figure 1. Theoretical Latent Growth Model with Structured Residuals.

Note. The variance of the initial structured residual term (ε_K) is freely estimated for models with continuous observed variables and constrained to equal 1 for models with ordinal variables. For continuous variable models, intercepts for observed variables are constrained to equal 0. For ordinal variable models, the mean of the latent intercept is constrained to equal 0 and observed variable thresholds are constrained to be equal across time points. K = kindergarten. G1 = Grade 1. G2 = Grade 2. G3 = Grade 3. G4 = Grade 4. G5 = Grade 5. G6 = Grade 6. rv = residual variance.