Social Policy and Development Seminars 2020: Evaluation for Improvement: Optimizing Program Effectiveness through Statistical Mediation Analysis

On Friday February 7, Social Policy Forum will host a seminar on “Evaluation for Improvement: Optimizing Program Effectiveness through Statistical Mediation Analysis” as part of "Social Policy and Development Seminar Series" jointly hosted with  Development Analytics. For more information on the paper and bio of the presenter, please follow the Eventbrite link and RSVP for the seminar by Wednesday, February 5, 5 PM.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-policy-and-development-seminar-serie...

Description

On Friday, February 7th, Dr. Yasemin Kisbu-Sakarya, a quantitative methodologist and faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Koç University will deliver her presentation on her research titled "Evaluation for Improvement: Optimizing Program Effectiveness through Statistical Mediation Analysis".

Abstract

Statistical mediation analysis allows researchers to investigate through which mechanisms a program changes the targeted outcome variables. A mediator differs from other third variables such as a moderator in that the mediator is intermediate in the causal process such that the program influences the mediator, which in turn influences the outcome. This presentation will first address the theory and examples of mediators in prevention and intervention research and then the findings of the methodological studies on mediation including estimation with latent variables and causal modeling of mediated effects will be shared. Finally, two recent studies investigating mediated effects in large scale educational interventions in Turkey will be described and the contributions to program improvement will be discussed.

About the Presenter

Yasemin Kisbu-Sakarya is a quantitative methodologist and faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Koç University. She has worked on the impact evaluation of several social, education, and health-related projects and currently leads a research lab on evaluation at Koç University. She is a recipient of 2017 Young Scientist Award given by Science Academy in Turkey. She completed her post-doc in impact evaluation at Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research and PhD in Quantitative Research Methods at Arizona State University.

About the Social Policy and Development Seminar Series

Hosted by Development Analytics and Bogazici University's Social Policy Forum, Social Policy and Development Seminars aim to bring together academics, researchers and students to stimulate a discussion about current research in social policies and global development.