@alvazquezphd
Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Co-Director of THRIVE @ Tennessee Lab | Researching Mental Health Disparities among Latinx Youths/Families | He/Him | Views = Own | 🇨🇺🇺🇸
🚨New pub🚨
We found that higher state-level structural ethnoracism (inequalities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White communities) is linked to fewer ACEs for non-Hispanic White youth but not for Hispanic youth.
doi.org/10.1007/s406...
🚨 New publication 🚨
Provider's attitudes towards telehealth and parenting interventions during COVID-19 pandemic: an exploratory cross-sectional study from Brazil and Mexico
doi.org/10.1186/s411...
🚨New publication 🚨
Intersecting identities, different struggles: The effects of demographics on experiences of discrimination and mental health outcomes among college students in Texas
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
📢 New publication out!
Our paper uses network analysis to examine how proximal minority stressors and identity resilience factors interact among LGBTQ+ adults—moving beyond latent models to capture complex, interconnected processes.
doi.org/10.1080/0951...
#LGBTQMentalHealth #CounselingPsychology
🚨 New publication 🚨
Caught in the web of polyvictimization, uses network analysis to compare theory-driven vs. data-driven groupings of potentially traumatic events among adolescents.
Free access (50 days): authors.elsevier.com/c/1mNnDX18Yd...
#AdolescentMentalHealth #Polyvictimization
Happy holidays from the THRIVE @ Tennessee Lab! 🎄🎁
Deadline for the UTK counseling psych Ph.D. program is one week away (Dec 1st). Consider applying to work with us if our work aligns well with your training/career goals!
Big thanks to Centro Hispano de East Tennessee for the Latinidad Award that @CMNavarroFlores, Lucybel Mendez, and I received for our community work. Also grateful to the National Latinx Psychological Association for a presidential citation for co-chairing this year’s conference.
Visiting NOLA for #ABCT2025 🎉
Chart showing the U.S. Hispanic population grew from 9.6 million in 1970 to 68 million in 2024.
In 2024, 68 million Hispanics made up 20% of the U.S. population.
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
First day of NLPA Summit at the U.S. Mexico border hosted by UTRGV. Grateful to have Michelle Silva as co-chair in organizing this event. 🎉🎊
Staff members at the NIH seem to have done the impossible: spend the agency's $48 billion budget.
“Everyone has been rallying together to clean up the mess, but it’s a mess that did not need to be made,” an NIH program officer told me.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
We hope to see you at the NLPA 2025 Summit in Texas. This year, you can choose to attend in-person or virtual. Register through the following link: ow.ly/nzsO50WWagM
Please share widely! Review starts 9/19. 🟧⬜️ 🟧⬜️
Its counseling and clinical psych Ph.D. program application season! If you are looking for potential mentors to apply to, check out the following resource:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Cynthia Navarro Flores and I will be reviewing applications for the counseling psychology PhD program @ UTKPsychNeuro (2026-2027 academic year).
Lab webpage: tiny.utk.edu/thrivelab
Apply: tiny.utk.edu/psycapply
Apps are due by Dec 1st. Please help spread the word! 🙏🏼
Outstanding new paper on machine learning at AMPPS-- hit the virtual stands this summer. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Reading the first round of discussion questions for my class and they are all criticizing the PHQ-9 as an outcome measure and talking about the weaknesses of ignoring individual symptoms when analyzing data
📢 We are hiring!
The Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is inviting applications for two tenure-track positions in
Counseling Psychology:
Assistant Professor
Assistant or Associate Professor
Apply here 👉 apply.interfolio.com/172545
Models as Prediction Machines: How to Convert Confusing Coefficients into Clear Quantities Abstract Psychological researchers usually make sense of regression models by interpreting coefficient estimates directly. This works well enough for simple linear models, but is more challenging for more complex models with, for example, categorical variables, interactions, non-linearities, and hierarchical structures. Here, we introduce an alternative approach to making sense of statistical models. The central idea is to abstract away from the mechanics of estimation, and to treat models as “counterfactual prediction machines,” which are subsequently queried to estimate quantities and conduct tests that matter substantively. This workflow is model-agnostic; it can be applied in a consistent fashion to draw causal or descriptive inference from a wide range of models. We illustrate how to implement this workflow with the marginaleffects package, which supports over 100 different classes of models in R and Python, and present two worked examples. These examples show how the workflow can be applied across designs (e.g., observational study, randomized experiment) to answer different research questions (e.g., associations, causal effects, effect heterogeneity) while facing various challenges (e.g., controlling for confounders in a flexible manner, modelling ordinal outcomes, and interpreting non-linear models).
Figure illustrating model predictions. On the X-axis the predictor, annual gross income in Euro. On the Y-axis the outcome, predicted life satisfaction. A solid line marks the curve of predictions on which individual data points are marked as model-implied outcomes at incomes of interest. Comparing two such predictions gives us a comparison. We can also fit a tangent to the line of predictions, which illustrates the slope at any given point of the curve.
A figure illustrating various ways to include age as a predictor in a model. On the x-axis age (predictor), on the y-axis the outcome (model-implied importance of friends, including confidence intervals). Illustrated are 1. age as a categorical predictor, resultings in the predictions bouncing around a lot with wide confidence intervals 2. age as a linear predictor, which forces a straight line through the data points that has a very tight confidence band and 3. age splines, which lies somewhere in between as it smoothly follows the data but has more uncertainty than the straight line.
Ever stared at a table of regression coefficients & wondered what you're doing with your life?
Very excited to share this gentle introduction to another way of making sense of statistical models (w @vincentab.bsky.social)
Preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
Website: j-rohrer.github.io/marginal-psy...
The Big Ten is airing a video advertisement defending higher education at its sporting events and on broadcasting channels. The effort comes after faculty leaders within the conference pushed their institutions to adopt a "mutual-defense compact."
🚨New pub🚨
Intersecting identities, different struggles: The
effects of demographics on experiences of
discrimination and mental health outcomes
among college students in Texas
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
📢 We are hiring!
The Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville is inviting applications for two tenure-track positions in
Counseling Psychology:
Assistant Professor
Assistant or Associate Professor
Apply here 👉 apply.interfolio.com/172545
#NLPA2025 Summit registration is open. Excited to soon learn from and be in community with other Latinx psychologist.
If you haven’t already, consider attending this timely conference. Hope to see you in Texas!
www.nlpa.ws/2025-confere...
Consider supporting the #NLPA2025 Summit, which will expand student access, support culturally grounded programming, and facilitate advocacy for Latinx mental health across the country. Sponsorship opportunities available through the link: www.nlpa.ws/2025-sponsor...
NLPA pre-conference registration now open for two great workshops! Hope to see you there! www.nlpa.ws/2025-pre-con...
Our department has a new name: 🟧⬜️🟧⬜️
artsci.utk.edu/new-name-ref...
Big life event! Nearly two weeks into being a girl dad. Barely slept but grateful that my wife and baby Sofía are healthy. Going to have to learn some new time management techniques. 👶🏻👨🏻🍼
🤣🤣
Visitor on the deck today 🦅