Aaron J. Boulton, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Boulton is a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Health Assessment Research and Translation (CHART) at the University of Delaware. He began working with Dr. Tulsky’s group in 2016 and formally joined CHART shortly thereafter.
Dr. Boulton has expertise in research design and statistical methods. His primary areas of focus include longitudinal data analysis, latent variable models, mixed-effects models, and psychometrics. Within CHART, his primary research interests center on applying modern test theory techniques to improve patient reported outcomes measurement in rehabilitation populations, and examining the time course of psychological and behavioral adjustment following traumatic injury. Dr. Boulton is also broadly interested in the development, evaluation, and dissemination of quantitative methods; current interests include continuous-time modeling, linking methods in health outcomes research, power analysis in mediation models, and methods for analyzing semicontinuous and limited dependent variables.
Dr. Boulton provides statistical support for all Center-related activities. This primarily includes the validation and clinical utility of the Spinal Cord Injury – Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) and Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life (TBI-QOL) measurement systems, the SCI-QOL Longitudinal Study, and the BADER Toolbox.
Dr. Boulton obtained his B.A. in Psychology and English from Augustana College; Rock Island, IL, his M.A. in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology at the University of Kansas.
Selected Publications
Tyner, C.E., Boulton, A.J., Sherer, M., Kisala, P.A., Glutting, J.J., Tulsky, D.S. (in press). Development of composite scores for the Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life Measurement System (TBI-QOL). Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Boulton, A.J., & Williford, A. (in press). Analyzing skewed continuous outcomes with many zeros: a tutorial for social work and youth prevention science researchers. Journal for the Society of Social Work and Research.
Tulsky, D.S., Holdnack, J.A., Cohen, M.L., Heaton, R.K., Carlozzi, N.E., Wong, A.W.K., Boulton,
A.J., & Heinemann, A.W. (2017). Factor structure of the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery in
individuals with acquired brain Injury. Rehabilitation Psychology, 62, 435–442.
Schoemann, A.M., Boulton, A.J., & Short, S.D. (2017). Determining power and sample size for
simple and complex mediation models. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8, 379–
386.
Deboeck, P.R., & Boulton, A.J. (2016). Integration of stochastic differential equations using
structural equation modeling: A method to facilitate model fitting and pedagogy. Structural
Equation Modeling, 23, 888–903.