New Methods - Speakers and Presentations
Saturday, October 14, 10:00-11:00 a.m.
"Mediation in multilevel models for family and dyadic data"
Presentation outline is available by clicking here.
Niall Bolger , Columbia University
Dr. Niall Bolger is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. His research considers how our close relationships affect how we cope with stressful events. Because it is difficult to examine this question in laboratory settings, much of his research has focused on real-world stressful events such as interpersonal conflicts, major examinations, and health crises. To study these events, he has obtained many repeated measurements on people as they experience them. The resulting data permit fine-grained analyses of people's coping processes, and afford much greater analytical power than can be found in conventional longitudinal research.
Abstract: "Mediation in multilevel models for family and dyadic data"
Presentation outline is available by clicking here.
Theories in dyadic and family research often specify the existence of intervening processes. For example, it has been argued that family economic hardship influences child well-being through its effects on the marital relationship. To evaluate such ideas with data involves assessing mediation, that is, whether the statistical relationship between two variables X and Y can be partially or completely accounted for by a mediating variable M. Although tests of mediation in traditional between-subjects designs are now well understood, the corresponding tests for within-subject, dyadic and family designs have only recently been investigated. In this talk, I will provide an introduction to the potentials and the problems that arise in tests of mediation in this context. I will illustrate these issues using the same dyadic dataset used by the previous speaker (Laurenceau).
Selected Publications:
Bolger, N. & Shrout, P. (2006). Accounting for statistical dependency in longitudinal data on dyads. In T. D. Little (Ed.), Modeling developmental processes in ecological context. Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum.
Bolger, N., & Amarel, D. (in press). Effects of support visibility on adjustment to stress: Experimental evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Laurenceau, J.-P., & Bolger, N. (2005). Using diary methods to study marital and family processes. Journal of Family Psychology, 19, 86-97.
Kenny, D. A., & Korchmaros, J., & Bolger, N. (2003). Lower-level mediation in multilevel models. Psychological Methods, 8, 115-128.
Bolger, N., Davis, A., & Rafaeli, E. (2003). Diary methods. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 579-616.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Assessing mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422-445.
Kennedy, J. K., Bolger, N., & Shrout, P. E. (2002). Witnessing interparental psychological aggression in childhood: Implications for daily conflict in adult intimate relationships. Journal of Personality, 70, 1051-1077.
Thompson, A., & Bolger, N. (1999). Emotional transmission in couples under stress. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 38-48.
