Research

Ongoing Projects

Impacts of Hard/Soft Skills on STEM Workforce Trajectories

Throughout this longitudinal study, the research team collected and linked individual-level data, academic program data, professional attainment data, and employer profile data. These data are being used to empirically assess the role(s) that communication, networking, leadership, and management skills play in shaping the career trajectories of PhD recipients across both academic and non-academic employment sectors, while accounting for characteristics of doctoral training environments at the research team level. Findings will inform evidence-based practice for PhD education by providing data that can guide the investment of resources to best prepare doctoral recipients for the workforce. This project is funded through the National Science Foundation Award 1956114.
The IQRM team on this project is assessing (1) the extent to which PhD graduates may or may not be proficient in the identified soft skills, (2) the extent to which their reported training in these skills predict their proficiency, and (3) the extent to which measured proficiency for these skills might predict professional career trajectories within or outside the academic workforce.

Math Learning Disabilities among Young Adults in College: Structure, Identification, and Validation

Many more students are enrolled in community college (CC) than in four-year colleges and universities, and many more students take developmental (remedial) math at CC than at four-year institutions. However, failure rates in these courses are high, and failure of developmental math is a significant barrier to STEM participation. There is surprisingly little data about the specific skill deficits and sociodemographic and personal barriers that contribute to this situation. It is likely that prior education, entry level mathematical skills, motivation, self-regulation, and affective factors contribute, in conjunction with work/family/financial considerations. However, these factors have not been considered together. This project will seek to identify the factors that underlie developmental math failure and how these factors fit together. It will use this information to develop a novel approach to identify mathematics learning disability (MLD). The project then aims to validate this approach by monitoring physiological factors that may qualitatively differentiate MLD from other difficulties. The results may point to potential avenues to identify and remediate these difficulties, which would be useful for improving student success in college. Funded through the National Science Foundation Award 1760760.
The IQRM team on this project studies the progression of this mathematics disability as it impacts both course outcomes and future performance in higher education. We use longitudinal, multimethod project data to statistically model and identify discrepancies among course grades, degree progress, and standardized outcomes, then use predictive modeling to understand potential mechanisms through which these discrepancies may be reconciled.

Longitudinal Measurement of Constructs: Bridging Methods & Meaning of Constructs over Time

Many projects in the lab draw from past work on longitudinal data analysis. We conduct work on the methodology of appropriately modeling and interpreting the processes of behaviors or cognitions as they develop over time both within- and across-persons. Current projects include:

Measurement of gentrification as a historically-informed longitudinal process
Measurement of creativity within-persons using the 4P framework across different fields
Mapping career trajectories of PhD recipients over time alongside their career experiences, networking opportunities, skills, and access to resources.

Alongside these applied projects, the lab broadly conducts methodological work on the data collection, integration, analysis, and interpretation of longitudinal measurement, drawing from measurement theories (e.g., classical test theory, item response theory), construct validity theories, probability theory, and latent state-trait theory. We utilize the view that Steyer and colleagues restate in their LST-R article (2015), an idea originally proposed by Steyer (1992) that "a person is never assessed in a situational vacuum." Applied to research design and analysis, situational influences can come from various sources, including present situations (e.g., being in a situation at the time of assessment) and also historical situational influences (e.g., having been in a specific environment prior to the time of assessment) can be designed and taken into account in the research approach, and the IQRM lab both advances and further develops innovative methodologies to bridge such methods with research practice in an accessible way.

Open Measurement Network Initiative for Alzheimer's Disease & Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias

Forthcoming.

Latent Interaction Effects

Forthcoming.

Past Projects

Trajectories of Early Career Research

The Trajectories in Early Career Research (ECR) project was a collaborative, mixed methods, 8-year longitudinal study to examine student development outcomes among doctoral students in the biological sciences. Data was collected with colleagues at Utah State University and was funded through the National Science Foundation. Data from this project continue to be used in IQRM research and trainings and is freely available on the Open Science Framework.

Publications & Scientific Communication

For a full list of Dr. Litson's publications, see: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2Te_TMEAAAAJ&hl=en

A list of ongoing and completed papers, projects, and other research resources including datasets and codebooks can be found on our lab OSF webpage.

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