Latent class and latent profile analyses in psychology: Basic principles and applications

Latent profile/class analysis is a statistical method used to identify homogeneous subgroups within a heterogeneous population. These subgroups are called latent classes/profiles because they are not directly observable but are inferred from measured indicators. Although this method is not really recent, it is currently experiencing renewed interest. The purpose of this article is to provide psychological researchers with the theoretical and statistical bases that we believe will facilitate its practical implementation. Indeed, concrete examples will not only help to illustrate this method, but also to familiarize with some R packages necessary for its use.