3-200 - Advanced Longitudinal Methods for the Study of Adolescent Development: Developmental Applications and Practical Challenges

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Gaining a better understanding of the complexities of adolescent development necessitates the use of advanced longitudinal methods, due to challenges including the non-independent nature of contextual data, the complexity of reciprocal relationships, and the dynamic processes that require different spacing of measurement occasions (Laursen, Little, & Card, 2012). This symposium discusses innovative longitudinal methodologies for studying adolescent development, namely statistical methods that can be used to understand development in the social context, determine causality in change processes, and examine how associations between risk factors and outcomes change over time.
The three papers in this symposium highlight the use of three innovative methods, each of which is applied to better understand adolescent development in context. Paper 1 uses social network analysis (Wasserman & Faust, 1994) to examine the ways in which English language learners’ peer interactions help to facilitate their classroom participation and achievement. Paper 2 uses propensity score weighting (Hirano & Imbens, 2001) in the context of causal mediation analysis with time varying predictors (Coffman & Zhong, 2012; Robins et al., 2000) to examine alcohol use as a mechanism for continued criminal involvement from adolescence into young adulthood. Paper 3 uses time-varying effect models (TVEMs; Tan et al., 2012) to examine changes in adolescents’ risky sexual behavior by age and amount of time in a relationship. Our discussant, an expert in developmental methodology, will lead a discussion focusing on applications of these methods and practical challenges related to the design and interpretation of this type of longitudinal research.

Sub Unit

• Methods, History, Theory

Chair

• Angela Henneberger, Univ of Maryland

Discussant

• Noel A Card, University of Connecticut

Individual Presentations

• The Importance of Peer Interactions for Academic Development in Linguistically Diverse Classes: A Social Network Analytic Approach - Presenting Author: Lauren E Molloy-Elreda, University of Virginia; Amanda Kibler, University of Virginia; Valerie Futch, University of Virginia

• Alcohol Use as a Mechanism for Criminal Justice Involvement from Adolescence into Adulthood: Strengthening Causal Interpretations - Presenting Author: Angela Henneberger, Univ of Maryland; Yao Zheng, Simon Fraser University; Donna Coffman, Pennsylvania State University

• Using the Time-varying Effect Model to Examine Change by Age and Time from an Event: Changes in Adolescent Sexual Risk Behavior - Presenting Author: Sara A. Vasilenko, Pennsylvania State University