Dear all,

*My example:*

I have 150 participants in my sample. At time point 1 (eg., at birth), I 
collected some background information (including both categorical and 
continuous variables) from the participants. Images of the participants 
were taken at time point 2 (eg., 6 months) and time point 3 (eg., 12 
months).

*My aim:*

I wish to investigate whether those background information collected at 
birth predict participants' shape changes from 6 to 12 months.

*Proposed methods:*

Perform between-group PCA (BGPCA) in steps below:

Step 1: Group the shape data by time point. One group for 6 months data, 
and the other for 12 months data;
Step 2: Perform BGPCA (in PCAGen8) and extract the most significant 
principal components (PCs) from scree plot;
Step 3: Extract the PC scores ("Save PCA Scores" button in PCAGen8)
Step 4: Since each participant appeared in both groups, I can calculate the 
difference of each participant's PC scores between the two groups (time 
points) for each extracted PC;
Step 5: Each participant is then associated with one score reflecting 
his/her shape change along a particular PC (eg., PC 1). This score is then 
used as the dependent variable so                   that conventional 
statistical analyses such as simple linear regression and ANOVA, can be 
performed.

*My question:*

Q 1: Is the steps above appropriate?
Q 2: Since the same participants are in both groups (groups differ only in 
the chronological order the shapes were measured), the two groups are 
correlated instead of being                        independent. Will such 
correlation affect the correctness of BGPCA in this example. Is there any 
way out if correlation is indeed a problem?

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Patrick

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