Research, Measurement & Evaluation Methods | CYFS | Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools

Team supports 4-H program evaluation

CYFS methodologists with the MAP Academy are helping 4H enhance a set of survey instruments. The team includes, from left, Jarrod Stevens, Natalie Koziol, Lorey Wheeler, Ann Arthur, Michelle Howell Smith and Leslie Hawley. — CYFS methodologists with the MAP Academy are developing measures to help 4-H assess youth development outcomes. The team includes, from left, Jared Stevens, Natalie Koziol, Lorey Wheeler, Ann Arthur, Michelle Howell Smith and Leslie Hawley.

A CYFS team is traveling nationwide to help 4-H assess its impact—one that extends to nearly six million youth through school and community programs, clubs and camps.

The team is working to enhance the 4-H Common Measures, a collection of multiple survey instruments that assess youth development outcomes. The team’s revisions began last year with input from a national advisory board. They are now heading into the field to get perspectives from the survey’s intended demographic—4-H youth and leaders. Full Article

Registration open for methodology workshop

The MAP Academy will host visiting scholar David MacKinnon for a Sept. 30 methodology workshop. The event is titled “Introduction to Modern Mediation Analysis” and will be held at UNL’s city campus.

Discounted early workshop registration is available through Sept. 23. Full Article

Methodologists discuss cross-cultural measurement

The April 15 Methodology Applications Series was led by Leslie Hawley, Betty-Jean Usher-Tate and Sara Gonzalez. View video.

The Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics continued its Methodology Applications Series on Friday, April 15. The series is free and open to the public.

The April 15 presentation, titled “Evaluating Measurement Invariance with Cross-Cultural Sensitivity,” was led by Leslie Hawley, CYFS research assistant professor, and doctoral students Betty-Jean Usher-Tate and Sara Gonzalez. Full Article

Fritz invited to Penn State for methodology presentation

CYFS faculty affiliate Matt Fritz was invited to give a presentation at The Pennsylvania State University on March 23 as part of the Prevention and Methodology Training colloquia series. He shared a presentation titled “The mediated effect is significant, so I’m done, right? Thinking critically about testing and interpreting mediated effects in prevention interventions.” Full Article

Graduate Student Q&A with Benjamin Baumfalk

Name: Benjamin Baumfalk

Hometown: Lincoln, Nebraska

Major/program: Quantitative, Qualitative and Psychometric Methods in the Department of Educational Psychology

CYFS graduate assistantship: CYFS’ Bureau for Education Research, Evaluation and Policy, and the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics Full Article

Visiting scholar discusses culture, research methods

Raised in South Africa, methodologist Debbie Miller moved cross-continentally seven times—all before starting college.

These experiences shaped her perspective on culture and its research impact, which she shared with faculty and students during the Feb. 5 Methodology Applications Series. Full Article

Spybrook leads fall Emerging Scholars Series

Jessaca Spybrook leads the Emerging Scholars Series. — Jessaca Spybrook begins the fall Emerging Scholars Series with a keynote presentation. Video available.

The MAP Academy hosted Jessaca Spybrook, associate professor of educational leadership, research, and technology at Western Michigan University, for the Dec. 3-4 Emerging Scholars Series. The series featured a keynote presentation, statistics workshop and an early career meeting for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Full Article

Video available for Enders methodology workshop

Craig Enders, author and professor of quantitative psychology at UCLA, leads the 2015 fall Nebraska Methodology Workshop.

UNL alumnus Craig Enders returned to campus Oct. 26 to host the MAP Academy’s Fall 2015 Nebraska Methodology Workshop: “Dealing with Missing Data.”

There have been substantial methodological advances in the area of missing data analyses during the last 25 years. Methodologists currently regard maximum likelihood estimation (ML) and multiple imputation (MI) as two state-of-the-art handling procedures for missing data. Full Article