Figure 1.

Bivariate latent difference score model of the State Anxiety Scale for Children (STAIC) and Therapist Alliance Scale for Children (TASC-R). Previous score on alliance is a significant predictor of later change on the anxiety. Additionally, previous score on anxiety is a significant predictor of later change on alliance.

Note. The role of the latent intercepts and slopes is to describe change in a manner similar to a latent growth curve model (i.e., to take into account the starting point and overall linear change process for each measure separately, as we look at our primary question of how the change processes across variables are predictive of one another). The α refers to alpha (estimate to model straight-line growth) and the β refers beta, which is a proportional change (allowing the trajectory to have a non-linear slope).