Michele Athay

Graduate Student
Research Area: Quantitative Methods

My research interests include both statistical and contextual areas. My statistical research interests include applied psychometric methods utilizing techniques from classical test theory, factor analysis, and item response theory (IRT), with emphasis on advanced IRT methods. My contextual areas of interest include children and adolescent mental health, transitional youth, and eating disorders.

I am currently the Director of Measure Development for Contextualized Feedback Systems (CFS™; http://www.cfsystemsonline.com ). CFS is a web-based measurement feedback system used to provide clinical feedback to clinicians providing mental health treatment to youth. Since 2006, I have been involved in the comprehensive psychometric analysis and scale revision of the Peabody Treatment Progress Battery (PTPB), which contains the core measures utilized in CFS. As a graduate student in Vanderbilt’s Quantitative Methods and Evaluation program, I enjoy keeping CFS on the cutting edge through application of my knowledge of advanced item response theory (IRT) techniques.

I am co-editing a special issue to be published in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Health Services Research that will include an article on each PTPB measure presenting comprehensive psychometrics and substantive research findings.

My dissertation work investigates measurement of clinical mental health outcomes (e.g. symptom severity) as categorical, dimensional, or mixed categorical/dimensional constructs both at one time point and longitudinally. 

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