Sharks, Ritalin, and a Female Lust Pill: Jeroen Mulder talks statistics in the Makkelijk Praten Podcast

An important determinant for the success of a research project, is a match between the research question, and the methodology and statistical analyses. Few researchers would dispute this, but finding this match can be challenging in practice, especially when the research question is (implicitly) causal. In the podcast Makkelijk Praten, Jeroen Mulder talks about how statisticians try to find solutions to this challenge, using a wide variety of examples.

Jeroen’s (CID PhD candidate at Utrecht University under supervision of Ellen Hamaker) project focuses on the development and evaluation of mathematical models to study child development. Specifically, how different designs and statistical techniques can be used to allow for causal inferences. In the podcast he talks about common pitfalls in causality research, including how there can be a mismatch between the question and analysis plan.

Jeroen Mulder

“The podcast was also a nice way to explain in layman’s terms what statistical research is and how it can help applied researchers with their projects. And it was the perfect opportunity to combine my work here with my work at NPO Radio 2.”

The importance of using the right statistical tool to examine your (causal) question of interest is also illustrated in the recent CID special issue paper ‘Description, prediction and causation: Methodological challenges of studying child and adolescent development‘ by Ellen Hamaker, Jeroen Mulder and Marinus van IJzendoorn (in press).

Find out more

Listen to the podcast here

If CID researchers have a causality statistics related question, Jeroen is just an email away.

Ellen L. Hamaker, Jeroen D. Mulder, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn (2020) Description, prediction and causation: Methodological challenges of studying child and adolescent development Developmental cognitive neuroscience. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100867