Dandan Tang

Ph.D. candidate

Department of Psychology
University of Virginia

Biography

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, under the supervision of Prof. Xin Cynthia Tong. Under her guidance, I have been working on the topic of missing data, longitudinal research, and Bayesian statistics at the Bayesian and Longitudinal Data Science Lab.

Research Interests

Structural Equation Modeling
Longitudinal study
Bayesian Statistics
Machine Learning
Missing data
Measurement invariance
Application of Statistics in Social Sciences

Education

Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology, 2023~Present
Advisor: Prof. Xin Cynthia Tong
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, US

M.S. in Quantitative Psychology, 2017-2020
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, China

B.S. in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, 2013-2017
School of Mathematics and Statistics, China

Publications

Accepted Publications

[Google Scholar]

Dandan Tang, Xin Tong, Jianhui Zhou. (2025). A Comparative Evaluation of a Conditional Median-Based Bayesian Growth Curve Modeling Approach with Missing Data, Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal.
Dandan Tang, Xin Tong. (2025). Evaluation of Missing Data Analytical Techniques in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches, Psychological Methods
Dandan Tang, Steven M Boker, Xin Tong. (2024). Are the Signs of Factor Loadings Arbitrary in Confirmatory Factor Analysis? Problems and Solutions. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, link .
Dandan Tang, Xin Tong. (2023). A Comparison of Full Information Maximum Likelihood and Machine Learning Missing Data Analytical Methods in Growth Curve Modeling. In The Annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society (pp. 99-107). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. link .
Dandan Tang, Zhonglin Wen. (2020). Statistical Approaches for Testing Common Method Bias: Problems and Suggestions. Journal of Psychological Science, 43(1) link .
Xiao-Fan Lin, Dandan Tang, Weipeng Shen, Zhong-Mei Liang, Yaner Tang, Chin-Chung Tsai. (2020). Exploring the Relationship between Perceived Technology-assisted Teacher Support and Technology-embedded Scientific Inquiry: the Mediation Effect of Hardiness. International Journal of Science Education, 42(8) link .
Zhonglin Wen, Dandan Tang, Honglei Gu. (2019). A General Simulation Comparison of the Predictive Validity between Bifactor and High-order Factor Models. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 51(3) link .
Xiao-Fan Lin, Dandan Tang, Xuanjun Lin, Zhong-Mei Liang, Chin-Chung Tsai. (2019). An Exploration of Primary School Students’ Perceived Learning Practices and Associated Self-efficacies Regarding Mobile-assisted Seamless Science Learning. International Journal of Science Education, 41(3) link .
Zhonglin Wen, Binbin Huang, Dandan Tang. (2019). Preliminary Work for Modeling Questionnaire Data. Journal of Psychological Science, 41(1) link .

Papers on Working

Dandan Tang, Xin Tong. Conditional Median-Based Bayesian Growth Curve Modeling with Missing Data in R: The Romeb Package.
Dandan Tang, Karen M Schmidt, Xin Tong. Evaluation of the Belief in Sexism Shift Scale from the Item Response Theory Perspective.
Dandan Tang, Xin Tong, Richard Hua Jiang. A Bayesian Method for Compositional Data Analysis in Longitudinal Studies.
Dandan Tang, Xin Gu, Herbert Hoijtink, Caspar van Lissa. A Bayesian Method for Approximate Measurement Invariance Testing.

Grants

Presidential Research Grant, UVA, 2023 ($10,000)
Dandan Tang
Support research work of the PhD program at the University of Virginia.
Quantitative Collaborative Research Grant, UVA, 2023 ($1,300)
Dandan Tang
An Investigation of Missing Data Analytical Methods in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches.
Double Hoo Research Grant, UVA, 2024 ($6,000)
Dandan Tang, Richard Hua Jiang
A Bayesian Method for Compositional Data Analysis in Longitudinal Studies.

Working Experiences

Research Assistant, Jan 2025 - Now
University of Virginia, U.S.
Bayesian and Longitudinal Data Science lab

Teaching Assistant, Aug 2024 - Dec 2024
University of Virginia, U.S.
Quantitative Methods II

Teaching Assistant, Aug 2023 - May 2024
University of Virginia, U.S.
Research Methods and Data Analysis II

Research Assistant, Sep 2020 - Apr 2023
Quantitative Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Studying measurement invariance and Bayesian statistics

Visiting Scholar, Aug 2019 - Aug 2020
Supervisor: Prof. Ke-Hai Yuan
Quantitative Psychology, University of Notre Dame, U.S.

Data Analyst, , Mar 2018 - Mar 2019.
Engineering and Technologies Research Center for Smart Learning, Guangdong, China.

Guest Lecturer, May 2018
South China Normal University, China.
Teaching how to use Mplus for researchers and teachers at the School of Foreign Studies.

Teacher, Jun 2014 - Aug 2014 & Jul 2015 - Aug 2015
Mingliang Education Company, China.
Teaching math to primary-school, junior-school, and senior-school students.

Presentations

American Psychological Association Convention. Seattle, US, August 2024. Bayesian Variable Selection with Compositional Data. (Oral Presentation) link.
International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Prague, Czech, July 2024. Quantile Longitudinal Data Modeling with Missing Data. (Oral Presentation) link.
Research Computing Exhibition. Virginia, US, April 2024. Evaluation of Missing Data Analytical Techniques in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches. (Poster Presentation) link.
International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Maryland, US, July 2023. An Investigation of Missing Data Analytical Methods in Longitudinal Research: Traditional and Machine Learning Approaches. (Oral Presentation) link.
The Winter Conference on Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. Twente University, Netherlands, December 2022. A Bayesian Method for Testing Approximate Longitudinal or Multiple-Group Measurement Invariance with Continuous or Dichotomous Data. (Poster Presentation) link .
International Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Bologna, Italy, July 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Oral Presentation) link.
The Summer Conference on Interuniversity Graduate School of Psychometrics and Sociometrics. Leuven University, Belgium, June 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Poster Presentation) link .
Structural Equation Modeling: New Developments and Applications. Tilburg University, Netherlands, March 2022. Bayesian Evaluation of Approximate Measurement Invariance. (Oral Presentation) link .
The 21st National Academic Congress of Psychology. Beijing, China, November 2018. A Simulation Comparison of Two Types of Bifactor and High-order Factor Models: Model Fit and Structural Coefficient. (Oral Presentation) link .
The 13rd Cross-Strait Conference on Educational and Psychological Testing. Taiwan, October 2018. A General Simulation Comparison of the Predictive Validity between Bifactor and High-order Factor Models. Excellent Paper (Oral Presentation). link .

Awards & Honors

Outstanding Master’s thesis Award, University of Virginia. 2024.
Presidential Fellowship, University of Virginia. 2023.
Outstanding Graduate Award (Top 3%), South China Normal University. June 2020.
Zeng Yongyu Scholarship (Top 3%), South China Normal University. June 2020.
Study Abroad Scholarship, South China Normal University. May 2019.
National Award (Top 3%), South China Normal University. October 2019.
Excellent Paper Award (Top 3), Chinese Association of Psychological Testing. October 2018.
Excellent Award for AI Creativity Works, South China Normal University. December 2017.

Skills

R, Mplus, LISREI, MATLAB, Python, SAS, Shiny, Smartpls, WinBUGS, HLM, Parscale, EQS.

Certificates

National Assistant Psychological Counselor
National Assistant Statistician
Advanced Teacher for Math

Memberships

American Educational Research Association
American Psychological Association
Psychometric Society

Reviewers

Psychometrika
Psychosomatic Medicine
Personality and Individual Differences
Methods in Psychology
Scientific Reports
Journal of Behavioral Data Science
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Acta Psychologica Sinica
Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development
Bioinformatics Advances
Plos One
2024 AERA Annual Meeting
2025 AERA Annual Meeting

Leadership & Professional Service

Organizer, a Workshop on Bayesian Statistics at the Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. (2022).
Coordinator, Design and Data Analysis (DADA) series meetings at the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, US. (2024).
Undergraduate Mentor, Richard Hua Jiang (A Bayesian method for compositional data analysis). (2024).

Department of Psychology University of Virginia

Awards & Honors

Department of Psychology
University of Virginia