Re: Random sample matched on variables

Posted by Koen N on Nov 13, 2012; 9:20am
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/Random-sample-matched-on-variables-tp5716152p5716163.html

Both Paul and Martha,

thank you for your considerations. I hadn't delved too far into propensity scores yet but from what I could tell earlier it was only to be used when there's a 'treatment' involved. But if I understand correctly, the 'treatment' can be anything that seperates two groups (which in this case would be paedophilia). As such it could be defined as "the probability of being a pedophile based on measured covariates". Am I correct in this understanding?

If I understand correctly I am to run a logistic regression in which I use my group variable (which I first transform into having two groups instead of three, which would be theoretically fine) as the dependent variable and my selected covariates as predictors. I save my predicted values. After this the actual matching begins and most sense would be to use the nearest neighbour matching. It seems as if nearest neighbour matching is going to be quite some work (manually finding the propensity score that is nearest to my pedophilic group amongst the control group for every pedophilic participant). Although I think I can cut down on a lot of time on that by using some simple commands.

Is my understanding correct or am I mistaking on any of the steps I should take?

Thanks again everyone!