Anthony Rodriguez

Photo of Anthony Rodriguez
Behavioral and Social Scientist
Boston Office

Education

Ph.D. in quantitative psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

Overview

Anthony Rodriguez is a behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation. Also a psychologist and psychometrician, his quantitative methodological research has focused on structural equation modeling (SEM), item response theory (IRT), and latent growth models. A major focus of his research has tackled issues of dimensionality, reliability, and assessment scoring. He has also investigated and developed alternative item response theory models designed to address and model non-normality in latent traits and errors. It has been equally important in his research to make these methodological pieces accessible to substantive researchers and, as such, has written didactic guides for easy implementation and interpretation of model results.

His substantive research interests have resulted in extensive collaborations spanning ethnic/racial disparities in longitudinal adolescent and early adulthood alcohol, marijuana, cigarette, e-cigarette, and opioid use; standardized assessment in post-acute care settings (home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long term care hospitals); development and testing of measures to evaluate emergency response communication; development, testing, and implementation of palliative care quality measures; generating crosswalks between PROMIS-29 and chronic pain legacy measures; ethnic/racial differences in the measurement of acculturation; and comparative effectiveness of culturally-centered suicide interventions for Alaska Native youth.

Rodriguez received his Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

  • CDC Emergency Risk Communication Process and Outcomes Measures Pilot Testing Project
  • MACRA Palliative Care Quality Measure Development
  • Comparative Effectiveness of Two Culturally Centered Suicide Interventions for Alaska Native Youth
  • Using PROMIS Cognition Item bank for Early Detection of Cognitive Decline in Primary Care
  • Development and Maintenance of Post-Acute Care Cross-Setting Standardized Patient Assessment Data

Selected Publications

Rodriguez, A., Edelen, M. O., McMullen, T., Ahluwalia, S. G., Chen, E. K., Dalton, S., Paddock, S., Saliba, D., Mandl, S., & Mota, T. , Who Receives Post-Acute Care? Characteristics of national population and field test sample. , Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Rodriguez, A., Edelen, M. O., Scherling, A., Bandini, J., Farmer, C., M., … Ahluwalia, S. C.,, MACRA palliative care quality measure development: Summary report of alpha testing. (WR-A400-1)

D’Amico, E. J., Rodriguez, A., Tucker, J. S., Dunbar, M. S., Pedersen, E. R., Shih, R. A., . . . Seelam, R. , Early and late adolescent factors that predict co-use of cannabis with alcohol and tobacco in young adulthood. , Prevention Science

Anthony Rodriguez, Steve P. Reise, Mark G. Haviland, "Applying bifactor statistical indices in the evaluation of psychological measures," Journal of Personality Assessment

Anthony Rodriguez, Steve P. Reise, Mark G. Haviland, "Evaluating bifactor models: Calculating and interpreting statistical indices," Psychological Methods

D’Amico, E. J., Rodriguez, A., Tucker, J. S., Pedersen, E. R. & Shih, R. A. , "Planting the seed for marijuana use: Changes in exposure to medical marijuana advertizing and subsequent adolescent marijuana use, cognitions, and consequences over seven years," Drug Alcohol Dependence

Anthony Rodriguez, Steve P. Reise, "Item response theory and the measurement of psychiatric constructs: Some empirical and conceptual issues and challenges," Psychological Medicine

Steve P. Reise, Anthony Rodriguez, Karen Spritzer, Ron Hays, "Alternative Approaches to Addressing Non-Normal Distributions in the Application of IRT Models to Personality Measures," Journal of Personality Assessment

Honors & Awards

  • Walter Klopfer Award – Best Empirical Paper 2016, Journal of Personality Assessment
  • Shepard Ivory Franz Teaching Award, UCLA
  • Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, UCLA

Publications