A comparison of approaches to the analysis of longitudinal categoric data

Marascuilo & Serlin (1979) discuss the problem of measuring relative change for a dichotomous variable and suggest ways of testing for the statistical significance of such changes. This article considers alternatives to the non-parametric approach adopted by Marascuilo & Serlin, alternatives which emphasize statistical models and which can be extended to all types of longitudinal categoric data. The models are fitted to the data presented by Marascuilo & Serlin, the results are compared and the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches are discussed.