I am an assistant professor of methods and statistics within the Department of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam.  My areas of expertise areas of expertise span structural equation modeling (SEM), multilevel modeling (MLM), social-relations modeling (SRM), and their intersections (i.e., ML-SEM and the SR-SEM), as well as nonparametric methods, Bayesian inference, and modern missing data methods. My methodological research interests involve statistical programming for psychometric methods.

My current research is funded by the NWO's Veni and Open Competition (XS) grants, the goal of which is to integrate the social relations model (SRM) with SEM.  I am using Bayesian methods to model "round-robin" (or "social network") data from the perspective of generalized latent-variable modeling, enabling many advantages of SEM to be applied to models for network data:

• simultaneously estimate a causal process (i.e., "mediation models")
• account for measurement error by using multiple indicators
• handle missing data using all available information (similar to FIML) or data augmentation (similar to multiple imputation)

My Veni project will involve developing a new R package for the integrated SR-SEM using a lavaan interface.  I am also a coauthor of the R package lavaan and develop key software in the "lavaan ecosystem" (e.g., as primary developer of the R package semTools, maintainer of the R package simsem, and contributor to the R package blavaan), all of which are devoted to SEM in R. 

Expertise and Research Fields

• Latent variable models
• Psychometrics
• Statistical programming

Expertise and Research Fields

• Latent variable models
• Psychometrics
• Statistical programming

Research Methods

• Monte Carlo simulation
• Robust and nonparametric (e.g., resampling) methods
• Bayesian estimation and inference
• Modern and planned missing-data methods

Current Research Projects 

• Evolving models for dyadic network data to represent and test complex theories: a Veni grant to integrate social relations (SRM) and structural equation (SEM) models. This has been extended with a follow-up grant: Developing and validating a generalized structural equation model for social network data (an NWO Open Competition (XS) Grant).
• Reorienting methods that utilise the latent-response interpretation for categorical outcome variables: Viewing thresholds as a measurement model
• Developing a single gold-standard method to quantify all types of reliability, for all scales of measurement, on the same metric

Research Grants & Honours

• NWO grant 016.Veni.195.457
• NWO grant 406.XS.01.078
• UvA’s Grassroots programme
• Kohnstamm Foundation’s Fund for Educational Research

Courses Taught

For the Research Master I teach 2 courses: Methods and Statistics in Education Research and Structural equation modelling in educational research
For the Youth at Risk Master, I teach 1 course: Masterclass in  Methods and Statistics

PhD Supervision

1. A comprehensive framework for estimating and interpreting interrater reliability of (inter)dependent data | PhD candidate: Debby ten Hove, MSc
2. Non-standard applications of structural equation modelling in child development and education research | PhD candidate: Laura Kolbe, MSc