The Center for Social Data Analytics Colloquium speaker: Lan Chen

Title:  "Identifying Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Health: Inter- and Intraindividual Differences"

Abstract: Adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to mental and behavioral health problems. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model, my research examines how individual characteristics and proximal social contexts, particularly family, peer, and school environments, shape adolescent health. A central contribution of our work is the integration of interindividual differences (average levels of risk and protection) with intraindividual differences (day-to-day and year-to-year fluctuations). Using daily diary data and large-scale longitudinal studies, we demonstrate that beyond interindividual differences, intraindividual differences in family, peer, and school processes uniquely predict both short- and long-term adolescent health outcomes.

Bio: Lan Chen is a dual-title PhD candidate in Human Development and Family Studies and Social Data Analytics at Pennsylvania State University. She is a Health and Human Development Endowed Graduate Fellowship fellow and was a NIDA-funded T32 Prevention and Methodology Training (PAMT) Fellowship fellow. Lan's research examines parenting as a context for understanding adolescent emotional development. Her work focuses on processes unfolding across multiple timescales (e.g., daily, yearly). Methodologically, Lan applies advanced statistical approaches to study both intensive longitudinal data (e.g., daily diary) and developmental longitudinal data.