Sonya K. Sterba

Contact Information

L.L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory
Department of Psychology CB# 3270
Davie Hall Rm. 357
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270

Phone: (919) 619-4822
Fax: (919) 962-2537
e-mail:

Research Interests

I am a member of Dr. Daniel Bauer's mixture and multilevel modeling research lab within the Quantitative Psychology Program at UNC. I also work with longitudinal psychiatric data at the Center for Developmental Epidemiology at Duke University and participate in the Survey Methodology training program at UNC's Odum Institute. I previously obtained my master's from UNC's Clinical Psychology Program.

My research focuses on methodological issues that commonly arise in developmental psychopathology research. These issues include complex sampling designs (e.g., unequal probabilities of selection, stratification, and/or clustering), unobserved population heterogeneity in the course of behavior, and sparse categorical or highly nonnormal behavioral outcomes. I evaluate how traditional structural equation and multilevel models can be best adapted to handle these real-world issues.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions about the Quantitative Psychology program at UNC or graduate student life in Chapel Hill.