An analysis of well-being in secondary school with multilevel growth curve models and multilevel multivariate models

This paper reports on an exploration of student wellbeing in secondary school. A wellbeing questionnaire was administered four times to the same students. Multilevel models were applied in which measurements are grouped within students within schools. Differences between students are large, but there are only minor differences between schools regarding the wellbeing. Two methods of analysis of longitudinal data are compared: a multilevel multivariate approach and a multilevel growth curve analysis. It is shown that the estimation of individual growth curves is an elegant and parsimonious way of modelling. The multivariate approach on the other hand is a more modest model. The assumptions, advantages and disadvantages of both perspectives are listed.