A Note on the Interpretation of Scale Values in Multidimensional Scaling Growth Analysis

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) has been used as a growth mixture modeling technique in psychological and education research in recent years. This note focuses on a detailed explanation of interpreting the scale values in MDS growth analysis. Since scale values from MDS growth analysis are based on the Euclidean metric, we attempt to offer some guidance on interpretation of the scale values in terms of percentage of change in growth between each time interval. This approach is illustrated with a hypothetical example, and it can be used in actual research settings.