Patrick James Curran (born May 9, 1965) is an American psychologist and

statistician A statistician is a person who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, and statisticians may wor ...

. He is a professor of

quantitative psychology Quantitative psychology is a field of scientific study that focuses on the mathematical modeling, research design and methodology, and statistical analysis of psychological processes. It includes tests and other devices for measuring cognitive ab ...

at the University of North Carolina, where he is also a faculty member at the Center for Developmental Science. He is the coauthor of ''Latent Curve Models: A Structural Equation Perspective'' (with Ken Bollen) and is known broadly in the social sciences for teaching and research on the measurement and analysis of

longitudinal data In statistics and econometrics, panel data and longitudinal data are both multi-dimensional data involving measurements over time. Panel data is a subset of longitudinal data where observations are for the same subjects each time. Time series and ...

. He is co-host, along with

Gregory R. Hancock Gregory Robert Hancock (born April 18, 1963 in Seattle, Washington, USA) is a Professor of Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation. He is the current University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UM ...

, of ''Quantitude'', a podcast focusing on quantitative methodology.

Career

Curran earned a bachelor's degree

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1987 and a PhD in

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

with an emphasis in

quantitative methodology Quantitative may refer to: * Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties * Quantitative analysis (disambiguation) * Meter (poetry), Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry * Statistics, also known as quantit ...

from

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

in 1994. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in applied statistics at the University of California, Los Angeles under

Bengt O. Muthén Bengt Olov Muthén is a psychometrician and Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. He is a former president of the Psychometric Society The Psychometric Society is an ...

, the creator of the Mplus statistical program. He became an assistant professor of psychology at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

in 1996. He moved three years later to

UNC UNC is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to: Education * University of Northern California (disambiguation), which may refer to: ** University of Northern California (Santa Rosa), in Petaluma, California, United States ** University of Nor ...

, where he was promoted to associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2006. He was Director of the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory from 2010 to 2017.

Extramural service

Curran serves on the editorial boards or as a consulting editor of several prominent journals in the field of psychology, including ''

Multivariate Behavioral Research ''Multivariate Behavioral Research'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology. The editor-in-chief is Peter Molenaar ( Pennsylvania State University). ...

'' and ''

Journal of Abnormal Psychology The ''Journal of Abnormal Psychology'' (formerly ''Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Social Psychology'' and ''Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Psychological Association (AP ...

''. In 2008, he cofounded Curran–

Bauer Bauer is a German surname meaning "peasant" or "farmer". For notable people sharing the surname, see Bauer (surname). Bauer may also refer to: Education and literature * Bauer's Lexicon, a dictionary of Biblical Greek * Bauer College of Busin ...

Analytics, a consulting firm based in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. He has taught doctoral-level quantitative workshops to more than 1,000 students and research scientists across six countries.

Research

Curran's program of methodological research encompasses

structural equation modeling Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a label for a diverse set of methods used by scientists in both experimental and observational research across the sciences, business, and other fields. It is used most in the social and behavioral scienc ...

multilevel model Multilevel models (also known as hierarchical linear models, linear mixed-effect model, mixed models, nested data models, random coefficient, random-effects models, random parameter models, or split-plot designs) are statistical models of parame ...

ing, and latent growth curve modeling of

. In addition, as a principal investigator on several grants from the

National Institute on Drug Abuse The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a United States federal government research institute whose mission is to "advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual a ...

, he conducts applied research in

developmental psychopathology Developmental psychopathology is the study of the development of psychological disorders (e.g., psychopathy, autism, schizophrenia and depression) with a life course perspective. Researchers who work from this perspective emphasize how psychopatho ...

in general and on the risk factors of adolescent substance use in particular. He has published extensively in books and peer-reviewed journals and has been cited in the scholarly literature more than 40,000 times.Curran's profile on Google Scholar
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Selected publications

* Curran, P. J., Cole, V., Bauer, D. J., Hussong, A. M., & Gottfredson, N. (2016). Improving factor score estimation through the use of observed background characteristics. ''Structural Equation Modeling'', ''23''(6), 827–844. * Curran, P. J., Howard, A. L., Bainter, S. A., Lane, S. T., & McGinley, J. S. (2014). The separation of between-person and within-person components of individual change over time: A latent curve model with structured residuals. ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'', ''82''(5), 879. * Curran, P. J., McGinley, J. S., Bauer, D. J., Hussong, A. M., Burns, A., Chassin, L., ... & Zucker, R. (2014). A moderated nonlinear factor model for the development of commensurate measures in integrative data analysis. ''Multivariate Behavioral Research'', ''49''(3), 214–231. * Curran, P. J., & Hussong, A. M. (2009). Integrative data analysis: the simultaneous analysis of multiple data sets. ''Psychological Methods'', ''14''(2), 81. * Curran, P. J., Hussong, A. M., Cai, L., Huang, W., Chassin, L., Sher, K. J., & Zucker, R. A. (2008). Pooling data from multiple longitudinal studies: The role of item response theory in integrative data analysis. ''Developmental Psychology'', ''44''(2), 365. * Curran, P. J., & Bauer, D. J. (2007). Building path diagrams for multilevel models. ''Psychological Methods'', ''12''(3), 283. * Curran, P. J., Bauer, D. J., & Willoughby, M. T. (2004). Testing main effects and interactions in latent curve analysis. ''Psychological Methods'', ''9''(2), 220. * Curran, P. J., Bollen, K. A., Chen, F., Paxton, P., & Kirby, J. B. (2003). Finite sampling properties of the point estimates and confidence intervals of the RMSEA. ''Sociological Methods & Research'', ''32''(2), 208–252. * Curran, P. J., & Willoughby, M. T. (2003). Implications of latent trajectory models for the study of developmental psychopathology. ''Development and Psychopathology'', ''15''(03), 581–612. * Curran, P. J., & Hussong, A. M. (2003). The use of latent trajectory models in psychopathology research. ''Journal of Abnormal Psychology'', ''112''(4), 526. * Curran, P. J. (2003). Have multilevel models been structural equation models all along?. ''Multivariate Behavioral Research'', ''38''(4), 529–569. * Curran, P. J., Bollen, K. A., Paxton, P., Kirby, J., & Chen, F. (2002). The noncentral chi-square distribution in misspecified structural equation models: Finite sample results from a Monte Carlo simulation. ''Multivariate Behavioral Research'', ''37''(1), 1-36. * Curran, P. J., & Bollen, K. A. (2001). The best of both worlds: Combining autoregressive and latent curve models. * Curran, P. J., & Muthén, B. O. (1999). The application of latent curve analysis to testing developmental theories in intervention research. ''American Journal of Community Psychology'', ''27''(4), 567–595. * Curran, P. J., Muthén, B. O., & Harford, T. C. (1998). The influence of changes in marital status on developmental trajectories of alcohol use in young adults. ''Journal of Studies on Alcohol'', ''59''(6), 647–658. * Curran, P. J., Stice, E., & Chassin, L. (1997). The relation between adolescent alcohol use and peer alcohol use. ''Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology'', ''65''(1), 130–140. * Curran, P. J., & Chassin, L. (1996). A longitudinal study of parenting as a protective factor for children of alcoholics. ''Journal of Studies on Alcohol'', ''57''(3), 305–313. * Curran, P. J., West, S. G., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. ''Psychological Methods'', ''1''(1), 16–29.

References

External links

Patrick Curran's website at the University of North Carolina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Patrick J. Living people Psychometricians 21st-century American psychologists American statisticians University of Colorado Boulder alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty 1965 births Quantitative psychologists 20th-century American psychologists