What kind of data are suitable for LCA?
LCA is suitable for binary, ordered-category and Likert-scale, or nominal data. It is not used with purely ordinal (rank order) data. A version of LCA suitable for continuous variables is called latent profile analysis (Lazarsfeld & Henry, 1968). With binary or nominal data, LCA is straightforward. With ordered-category or Likert-scale data, one may wish to apply certain constraints to response probability parameters (see FAQ, How are ordered category data handled?). There is no technical barrier to analyzing models that combine categorical and continuous data. At least two computer programs, Multimix and Mplus, allow this.
