Can I assign individuals to latent classes or latent statuses based on their posterior probabilities?
We do not recommend assigning individuals to latent classes or latent statuses based on their posterior probabilities unless there is no viable alternative. By assigning individuals to latent classes or latent statuses, you introduce error into your results. There are many different types of analyses that can be performed within the latent class modeling framework (e.g., predicting latent class membership) without having to assign individuals to latent classes or latent statuses. When possible, we recommend working within the latent class modeling framework because it incorporates measurement error into the model, which is ignored by class/status assignment. If you are planning to assign individuals based on posterior probabilies, one article of interest might be: Goodman, L. A. (2007). On the assignment of individuals to latent classes. Sociological Methodology, 37(1), 1-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9531.2007.00184.x In this paper, Goodman describes two ways to assign individuals and two c
