General description ---------- This respository offers syntax and output files for the article "*Profiles of Competence Development in Mathematics and Reading in Early Secondary Education*". None of these files should be necessary for understanding the original article. These files are mainly for replication and verification purposes. These text files can be used to prepare the data in Stata and calculate the models in MPlus. As both of these programs are not open access, the output files in MPlus are also added. Additionally, all files can be opened as text files in any program supporting .txt files (such as the programs "Editor" or "Notepad") to check the coding and modeling. ---------- Usage ---------- To use these syntax-files, the NEPS-Data of starting cohort 3 (version 8.0.0) is needed. These datasets can be accessed by scientists after conclusion of a Data Use Agreement with the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi). The specific data files needed for data preparation are: - SC3_xTargetCompetencies_D_8-0-0.dta - SC3_pTarget_D_8-0-0.dta - SC3_pParent_D_8-0-0.dta - SC3_CohortProfile_D_8-0-0.dta All of these files have to be located in the working directory of the data preparation. Once data preparation is concluded, the datasets SC3_all.dat and SC3_gym.dat have to be copied into the same folders as the MPlus syntax files. The following folder structure is recomended: - A: Data preparation - B: Model estimation: - 1: Full sample - 1: Slope only model - 2: Slope and intercept model - 2: Subsample - 1: Slope only model - 2: Slope and intercept model The syntax files should be added to the same folders as in this repository, the original data-sets should be included in A; once created the dataset SC3_all.dat should be added to B-1-1 and B-1-2, the dataset SC_gym.dat to B-2-1 and B-2-2.