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Yasemin Kisbu , PhD  

​CV
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Dr. Kisbu is a faculty member and the director of Independent Evaluation Laboratory at Koç University, Department of Psychology. Her research focuses on 
  • Experimental and quasi-experimental design for impact evaluation
  • Quantitative methods to increase intervention effectiveness 
  • Large-scale data analysis and survey research to inform policy and interventions on risk and protective factors
  • Transportability and adaptability studies to bring effective programs to settings and countries different from where they originated
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analysis of intervention effectiveness
  • Child well-being in vulnerable populations (e.g., refugees, low-and-middle-income countries, girls). 
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Dr. Kisbu completed her PhD in Quantitative Research Methods in Psychology at Arizona State University. During her doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. David MacKinnon (former President of APA Div. 5 - methodology), she worked in Research in Prevention Laboratory where she served as a researcher to evaluate several health related interventions implemented across US. She has specifically worked on methods testing which components of interventions work or don’t work in order to make the programs more cost- and outcome- effective.
 
She then completed her postdoctoral work under the supervision of Prof. Thomas D. Cook at Northwestern University, Institute for Policy Research where she worked on the development of novel quasi-experimental methods to evaluate programs and policies and used the new analysis methods to evaluate education and child development related intervention programs.
 
Dr. Kisbu is a recipient of 2017 Young Scientist Award given by Science Academy in Turkey. She has published several articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and presented at international conferences. She speaks Turkish, English, and French. 

Yasemin Kisbu currently serves as the associate editor of Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science (AMPPS), the methodology journal of Association for Psychological Science (APS), published by Sage. 

E-mail: ykisbu at ku.edu.tr
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Experience

Koç University (2014 – present)
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology 
(Received "Associate Professor" title from the Turkish Council of Higher Education, 2018) 

Northwestern University, Institute for Policy Research (2013 – 2014)   
Post-doctoral Fellow in Quantitative Methodology and Evaluation
Supervisor: Prof. Thomas D. Cook (now at Mathematica Policy Research)
Topic: Causal inference methodology and quasi-experimental design.
 
Arizona State University, Research in Prevention Laboratory (2009 – 2013)
Graduate Research Associate in Quantitative Analysis, Evaluation Design and Methods.
​Advisor: Prof. David MacKinnon (former President of American Psychological Association's Division of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods)
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Selected Publications
(* sign denotes graduate student under supervision) 
  1. Kisbu, Y., Akcinar, B., Kuscul, H., Bozok, M. Turunc, G., Fisek, G. (accepted, 2021). Protective and risk factors for involved fathering in a traditional culture: Results from a nationally representative sample. Family Relations. 
  2. Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. & Doenyas, C. (2021). Can School Teachers' Willingness to Teach ASD-Inclusion Classes Be Increased via Special Education Training? Uncovering Mediating Mechanisms. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 113, 1-9. 
  3. Turunc, G.* & Kisbu, Y. (accepted, 2021). Justifying domestic violence, parental involvement, and early childhood development in LMIC: Testing an actor-partner interdependence model using UNICEF MICS data.  Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 
  4. Uslu, D.*, Marcus, J., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. ( 2021). Toward optimized effectiveness of employee training programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personnel Psychology. 
  5. Ozcan, S.M.*, Cetinkaya, E., Goksun, T., & Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (2021). Does learning to code influence cognitive skills of elementary school children? Findings from a randomized experiment. British Journal of Educational Psychology. 
  6. Balci, F., Baykal, E., Goksun, T., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. Yantac, E. (in press, 2021). Improving creative thinking in elementary school children from disadvantaged families: A randomized trial. Journal of Creativity Research.                        
  7. Sumer, O.*, Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. Etel, E., Selcuk, B. (2020). Developmental change in early language and cognitive skills of institution-reared children as compared to their parent-reared peers. Children and Youth Services Review, 121, 1-9. 
  8. Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., MacKinnon, D. P., Valente, M. J., & Çetinkaya, E. (2020). Causal Mediation Analysis in the Presence of Post-treatment Confounding Variables: A Monte Carlo Simulation Study. Frontiers in Psychology – Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, 1-16.
  9. Çetinkaya, E.*, Hermann, S., & Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (2020). Adapting the values affirmation intervention to a multi-stereotype threat framework for female students in STEM. Social Psychology of Education. 
  10. Niehues W.*, Kisbu-Sakarya Y., & Selcuk B. (2020). Family Cohesion Facilitates Learning-Related Behavior and Math Competency at the Transition to Elementary School. Early Education and Development, 1-15.  
  11. Niehues, W.*, Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Selçuk, B. (2020) Motivation and Math Achievement: Are They Linked with Socio-Economic Status? Educational Psychology, 1-22. 
  12. Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Cook, T.D., Tang, Y., & Clark (2018). Comparative Regression Discontinuity: A Stress Test with Small Samples. Evaluation Review. 
  13. Tang, Y., Cook, T.D., & Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (2018). Statistical Power for the Comparative Regression Discontinuity Design with a non-Equivalent Comparison Group. Psychological Methods.
  14. Olivera, M., Rikoon, S., Gonzalez, O., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. & MacKinnon, D.P. (2018). Bias, type I error rates and statistical power of a latent mediation model in the presence of violations of invariance. Educational and Psychological Measurement.
  15. Tang Y., Cook, T.D., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Hock, & Chiang (2017). The Comparative Regression Discontinuity (CRD) Design: An overview and demonstration of its performance relative to basic RD and the randomized experiment. In M.D. Cattaneo & J.C. Escanciano (Eds.), Advances in Econometrics, Volume 38. ​
  16. Kagitcibasi, C., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Aydogdu, E*. (2017). Intercultural engagement and relatedness: Examining mediation effects.
  17. Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., MacKinnon, D.P. & O’Rourke, H. (2015). Statistical models of mediation for drug program evaluation. In L. M. Scheier (Ed.), Handbook of drug abuse prevention research, intervention strategies, and practice. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 
  18. Miller, J. D.,  Maples, J. L., Buffardi, L., Cai, H., Gentile, B., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Kwan, V.S.Y., LoPilato, A., Pendry, L. F., Sedikides, C., Siedor, L., & Campbell, W. K. (2015). Narcissism and United States’ Culture: The view from home and around the world. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(6), 1068-89.
  19. Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., MacKinnon, D. P., & Miočević, M. (2014). The Distribution of the Product Explains Normal Theory Mediation Confidence Interval Estimation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 49, 261-268.
  20. Ames, S. L., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Reynolds, K.D., Boyle, S., Cappelli, C., Cox, M.G., Dust, M., Grenard, J.L., MacKinnon, D.P. & Stacy, A.W. (2014).  Inhibitory control effects in adolescent binge eating and consumption of sweetened beverages and snacks.  Appetite, 81, 180-192. 
  21. Kisbu-Sakarya,Y., MacKinnon, D.P., & Aiken, L.S. (2013). A Monte Carlo comparison study of the power of the analysis of covariance, simple difference, and residual change scores in testing two-wave data. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 73, 47-62.     
  22. Cox, M. G., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Miočević, M., & MacKinnon, D. P. (2013). Sensitivity Plots for Confounder Bias in the Single Mediator Model. Evaluation Review, 37, 1-27. 
  23. MacKinnon, D.P., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Gottschall, A. (2013). Developments in mediation analysis. In T.D. Little (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Quantitative Methods. New York: Oxford University Press.
  24. Grenard, J. L., Stacy, A. W., Shiffman, S., Baraldi, A. N., MacKinnon, D. P., Lockhart, G., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., … & Reynolds, K. D. (2013). Sweetened drink and snacking cues in adolescents. A study using ecological momentary assessment. Appetite, 67, 61-73.
  25. Kuehl, K. S., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Elliot, D. L., Moe, E. L., DeFrancesco, C. A., MacKinnon, D. P., ... & Kuehl, H. E. (2012). Body Mass Index is a Predictor of Fire Fighter Injury and Worker Compensation Claims. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 54, 579.
  26. Pirlott, A. G., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., DeFrancesco, C. A. , Elliot, D. L., & MacKinnon, D.P. (2012). Mechanisms of motivational interviewing in health promotion: A Bayesian mediation analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 9, 1-11.           
  27. Elliot, D.L., MacKinnon, D.P., Mabry, L., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., DeFrancesco, C.A., Coxe, S.J., Kuehl, K.S., Moe, E.L., Goldberg, L., & Favorite, K.C. (2012). Worksite wellness program implementation: A model of Translational Effectiveness. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 1-8.  

Selected manuscripts under review / in progress: 
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  1. Kisbu, Y. et al. (under invited revision). Fathering styles in Turkey: a latent profile analysis based on a representative sample.                     
  2. Çetinkaya, E.* & Kisbu, Y. (under review). The impact of brief social psychological interventions to reduce academic achievement gap: A systematic review of the evidence. 
  3. Turunç G.* & Kisbu, Y. (under invited revision). War Trauma, Harsh Discipline and Child Functioning: Examining indirect effects using UNICEF MICS.            
  4. Niehues, W.*, Selcuk, B., & Kisbu, Y. (under invited revision). German-Turkish, Turkish and German mothers’ perception of their psychological control, autonomy support, mother-child conflict and children’s learning-related behaviors.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  5. Turunc, G.* & Kisbu, Y. (final draft in preparation). Mental health and social risk factors for parental involvement of Syrian refugee fathers. 
  6. Kisbu, Y. &  Çetinkaya, E.* (final draft in preparation). Transportability and adaptability of a brief and scalable social belonging intervention to Syrian refugee education context. 
  7. Faraci, C.* & Kisbu, Y. (final draft in preparation). Effectiveness of Parent Mediated Autism Interventions: A Systematic Review and Brief Meta-Analysis. 
  8. Uslu, D.*, Borja, A., & Kisbu, Y. (final draft in preparation). Diversity interventions to reduce gender bias in the workplace: A systematic review and future directions.
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​Selected Conference Presentations

​Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (June, 2019). Fathering in Different Contexts. Symposium organized and chaired for the Annual Meeting of Society for Prevention Research, San Francisco CA.

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (June, 2015). Advancing Quasi-Experimental Methods: Comparative Regression Discontinuity Design. Paper symposium organized and chaired for the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (June, 2015). Advances in Mediation Analysis: Improving Causal Interpretation and Accuracy of Estimates. Paper symposium organized and chaired for the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Cook, T.D. & Yang, T. (June, 2015). Comparative Regression Discontinuity: Mitigating the Limitations of Regression Continuity Design. Paper  presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC. 

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & MacKinnon, D., (June, 2015). Estimating causal mediated effects in the presence of post-treatment confounders. Paper  presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.

Yang, T., Cook, T.D., & Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (June, 2015). Reducing Bias and Increasing Precision by Adding Either a Pretest Measure of the Study Outcome or a Nonequivalent Comparison Group to the Basic Regression Discontinuity Design. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.

Olivera-Aguilar, M., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & MacKinnon, D., (June, 2015). Violations of invariance in a mediation model: Impact on relative bias, type I error rates, statistical power and coverage. Paper  presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., O’Rourke, H., & MacKinnon, D., (June, 2012). Causal inference in Bayesian mediation analysis: Implications of prior information use. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC. 

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., MacKinnon, D., & Tofighi, D. (June, 2011). Bayesian mediation analysis for studies with small samples. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Denver, Co.

Cox, M. G., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & MacKinnon, D., (June, 2012). Distillation of the mediated effect: Estimating bias in latent variable mediation models. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC. 

MacKinnon, D.P., Cox, M.G., Miocevic, M., & Kisbu-Sakarya, Y. (March, 2012). Methods to assess confounder bias applied to an anabolic steroid prevention program. Paper presented at the Frontiers in the Analysis of Causal Mechanisms Conference, Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, Cambridge, MA. 

MacKinnon, D.P., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., & Lockhart, G. (October, 2011). Moments of the Distribution of the Product of Two Standard Normal Variates. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, OK. 

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., MacKinnon, D., & Elliot, D. (2010, June). Cross-Sectional versus Longitudinal Analyses: Discrepant Findings from Prevention Research Data. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Denver, Co. 

Burrell, G.L., MacKinnon, D., & Kisbu, Y. (2010, June). Test of an Instrumental Variable Estimation of the Mediated Effect. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Denver, Co. 

Elliot, D.L., MacKinnon, D.P., Mabry, L., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Kuehl, K., & Favorite, K. (April, 2012). Worksite wellness program implementation: A model of translational effectiveness. Presented at the National American College Occupational and Environmental Medicine meeting, Los Angeles, CA.

Baraldi, A.N., MacKinnon, D.P., Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Grenard, J.L., Pike, J., Stacy, A., & Reynolds, K. (June, 2012). Methodological challenges in EMA data as applied to an obesity study. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of Society of Prevention Research, Washington DC.  

Kisbu-Sakarya, Y., Pirlott, A., DeFrancesco, C., Eash, M., MacKinnon, D., Elliott D.L. (June, 2011). Mediation mechanisms of motivational interviewing in occupational health promotion. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of American College of Sports Medicine, Denver, Co.