A Cusp Catastrophe Model for Social Behavioral Research

Background: Built on our 5-year research supported by the National Institute of Health Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, R01HD075635, PIs: Chen X and Chen D 2013-2018), the cusp catastrophe model provides a promising approach for social behavioral researchers to investigate both continuous and quantum changes in one modeling framework. This symposium introduces our development in statistical cusp catastrophe modeling. We demonstrate the utility of this new method with analysis on survey data collected for an NIH-funded project providing HIV-prevention education to adolescents in the Bahamas. We found that the results can be more reasonably explained by our approach than other existing methods.

Purpose: The aim of this symposium is to introduce a new concept of cusp catastrophe model in social behavioral research, which can incorporate the rational and quantum behavior into one unified modelling framework and has the potential to improve intervention research. Contents: This workshop will: (a) review the concept of rational and quantum behaviors; (b) discuss the new development of the cusp catastrophe model as a unified model for both behaviors, and (c) demonstrate the advantages of this unified approach for social intervention research. The traditional regression models and the cusp catastrophe model will be compared.

Pedagogical Techniques: This symposium will use a PowerPoint presentation to review traditional regression methods and their limitation on behavior research along with the advantages on cusp catastrophe model. Participants will receive instructional handouts. Significance: This workshop aims to introduce cusp catastrophe model in social behavioral intervention research, a topic that we think will be of great interest to many social workers. Case examples will illustrate cusp catastrophe model with detailed implementations in free software R. This workshop will help to improve the rigor of quantitative research in social work, and, more distally, contribute to advances in research for social work practice.