W Justin Dyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 136558 |
|---|---|
| NAME | W Justin Dyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | W Justin |
| FAMILY NAME | Dyer |
| SIGNATURE | DYER W J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brigham Young University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0275-276X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 108 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Mental Health Across Religious and Spiritual Categories: A Longitudinal Study Among Parents and Their Children
This study examines how religious and spiritual identities relate to depression and anxiety at baseline and longitudinally. Using data from the Family Foundations of Youth Development Project, which sampled parent–child dyads from the Western United States, we investigated how mental health relates to the conjunction of spirituality and religiosity (S/R), the lack of either, or one separate from the other. At baseline, children identifying as “Sp…
The Role of Parenting in Changes in Adolescent Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Psychological Well-Being: A Latent Transition Analysis
Adolescence is a period with increased religious and spiritual (R/S) exploration, which includes changes in levels of struggle and psychological well-being. Using two waves of longitudinal data from adolescents in the Western United States (Time 1: N = 1,689, M age = 16.2; Time 2: N = 1,232, M age = 18.1), we examined heterogeneity and transitions in profiles of R/S struggles (interpersonal, doubt, divine) and psychological well-being (purpose, a…
The temporal relationship between religious motivations and purpose: A cross-lagged panel model approach
Sacred struggles: How religious conflict in families affects mental well-being
Religious Deidentification and Positive and Negative Youth Functioning in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study
Spiritual/Religious Engagement and Maladaptive Perfectionism: A Longitudinal Study of Latter-Day Saint Youth and Their Peers
Who's most at risk? A person‐centered approach to understanding the long‐term relationship between early social media use and later depression across adolescence
INTRODUCTION: Person-centered analyses examined the relationship between social media use and depression over an 8-year period. The purpose was to examine the varying ways early social media use was associated with the development of depressive symptoms with a hypothesis that social media would not have a uniform association with depressive symptoms across adolescents. METHODS: Participants included 488 adolescents (52% female), living in the Uni…
Reducing hostility, increasing warmth: Varying ways religion relates to parenting
Religion, Mental Health, and the Latter-Day Saints: A Review of Literature 2005–2022
The objective was to review all peer-reviewed, scholarly articles on the mental health of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2005 to 2022. Forty-six studies were identified. Research findings were consistent with the general research on R/S and mental health, which typically finds R/S related to better mental health. When comparisons are made, Latter-day Saints are typically found to have better mental health than tho…
Who is Most at Risk for Developing Physical Aggression After Playing Violent Video Games? An Individual Differences Perspective From Early Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood
How Does Religious Faith Impact Positive Youth Outcomes
This study investigates the protective aspects of religiosity in young adolescents and explores the potential processes involved. Specifically, we examine the influence of three measures of religiosity-religious salience, intrinsic religiosity, and daily religious experiences-on delinquency and anxiety. The study sample consists of 636 families located in the state of Utah. Additionally, we explore how positive youth development (PYD) constructs …
Adolescent suicide ideation in Utah: The role of religion and family
Refining research on the intersection between sexual orientation, suicide, and religiosity
Religious Affiliation's Association with Suicidality across Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities
The objective was to replicate and extend earlier findings examining the intersection of sexual orientation and religious affiliation predicting suicidality. Current analyses used updated data and extended prior work by examining how affiliation relates to suicidality for transgender individuals. Data were collected in 2021 from 46,562 adolescents and were representative of Utah adolescents in grades 8, 10, and 12. In regressions, affiliation pre…
Development and Initial Validation of the Perceived Power Imbalance Scale
Suicide Risk in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Screen Time over 10 years
One Line of Sexual Decline? Growth Mixture Modeling for Midlife Sexual Satisfaction
From parent to child: Family factors that influence faith transmission
Grace, legalism, and mental health: Examining direct and mediating relationships
Religiosity from Age 12 to 20: Stability, Change, and Bidirectional Effects of Attendance, Prayer, and Salience
Religiosity is a protective factor for adolescents, though research has indicated religiosity declines across adolescence. However, little research has examined how various dimensions of religiosity may change across time. With yearly data from a sample of 489 participants, the current study examined rank-order and mean level changes in religiosity from early adolescence (12 years-old) into late adolescence/emerging adulthood (20 years-old). Thre…
Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Children’s Development
Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children’s development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father–child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies…
Exploring hope as a mediator between religiosity and depression in adolescents
Multiple studies have found an inverse relationship between adolescent religiosity and adolescent depression. However, further research is needed to better understand the complexity of this relationship. One potential mediator that may help to explain this relationship is hope. Prior research has found that adolescent religiosity is predictive of increased adolescent hope and that higher levels of adolescent hope have been associated with multipl…
Jailed Fathers and Family Complexity
When individuals have biological children with more than one partner (multipartner fertility [MPF]), they, on average, experience less ability to care for their children and work with coparents (compared with those with children from a single partner or fewer partners). These problems can be further exacerbated when one partner is incarcerated. Under such conditions, service agencies are particularly crucial for these families. For services to be…
Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence
A burgeoning literature supports the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as an index of physiologic sensitivity to the environment, but extant research is limited in its focus on single branches of the ANS, childhood samples, and solely negative environmental factors. This study seeks to address these limitations by exploring whether reactivity in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems jointly moderate the …
Family Financial Stress and Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking: The Role of Self-Regulation
Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior Toward Family, Friends, and Strangers: A Person‐Centered Approach
This study examined longitudinal change in adolescents' prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers. Participants included 491 mother–child dyads (average age of child at Time 1 = 11.5, 67% European American). Growth mixture modeling suggested that prosocial behavior toward family was generally stable or decreased over time, while prosocial behavior toward friends increased over time. However, findings highlighted unique developmenta…
Marital conflict and growth in children's internalizing symptoms: The role of autonomic nervous system activity
We assessed trajectories of children's internalizing symptoms, indexed through anxiety and depression, with a focus on the role of interactions between interparental marital conflict, children's sympathetic nervous system activity indexed by skin conductance level (SCL), and parasympathetic nervous system activity indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as predictors of growth. Children participated in 3 waves of data collection with a 1-ye…
The Vital Role of Measurement Equivalence in Family Research
The construct is the most basic aspect of a theoretical model. Whether a construct is equivalent across groups or time is a vital consideration when testing theory. However, examining construct equivalence is often not well understood either conceptually or statistically. This article provides a conceptual and statistical overview of construct equivalence as well as a rationale for its increased use. An example of testing for equivalence is also …
Family Financial Stress and Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking: The Role of Self-Regulation
Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence
A burgeoning literature supports the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as an index of physiologic sensitivity to the environment, but extant research is limited in its focus on single branches of the ANS, childhood samples, and solely negative environmental factors. This study seeks to address these limitations by exploring whether reactivity in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems jointly moderate the …
Investigating Family Shared Realities With Factor Mixture Modeling
The authors introduce factor mixture modeling (FMM) and its implications for assessing varying degrees of shared reality in families. FMM extends the typical factor analytic model that uses a set of observed indicators to identify an unobservable factor and its structure. FMM examines the possibility a sample is a mixture of "classes," each with unique factor structures. To demonstrate, varying factor structures of father involvement are identifi…
Keep on Keeping On, Even When It’s Hard!”: Predictors and Outcomes of Adolescent Persistence
The current study examined adolescent persistence as a mediator between authoritative parenting and adolescents’ school engagement, prosocial behavior, and delinquency. Participants were taken from Time 2, 3, and 4 of the Flourishing Families Project and included 325 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 11 and 14 at Time 2 (mean age = 12.34, SD = 1.06, 52% female), 96% of whom had complete data for Time 4 (2 years later). Analyses…
Using Mixture Regression to Identify Varying Effects: A Demonstration With Paternal Incarceration
The most widely used techniques for identifying the varying effects of stressors involve testing moderator effects via interaction terms in regression or multiple-group analysis in structural equation modeling. The authors present mixture regression as an alternative approach. In contrast to more widely used approaches, mixture regression identifies varying effects without reliance on tests of moderator variables, such as using interaction terms …
Development and Initial Validation of the Perceived Power Imbalance Scale
Wrestling Proteus: Assessing the Varying Nature of Father Involvement Across Contexts
This study investigated the common assumption that measures of father involvement are invariant across child age, gender, and reporter. Measurement invariance was tested with 320 families who were interviewed at child ages 10, 12, and 14. Criterion validity was also examined, using observational, survey, and physiologic measures with factor rotation type considered. It was found that invariance did not hold across gender for child report but did …
Suicide Risk in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Screen Time over 10 years
One Line of Sexual Decline? Growth Mixture Modeling for Midlife Sexual Satisfaction
Fathers in Cultural Context
Religious Affiliation's Association with Suicidality across Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities
The objective was to replicate and extend earlier findings examining the intersection of sexual orientation and religious affiliation predicting suicidality. Current analyses used updated data and extended prior work by examining how affiliation relates to suicidality for transgender individuals. Data were collected in 2021 from 46,562 adolescents and were representative of Utah adolescents in grades 8, 10, and 12. In regressions, affiliation pre…
Who is Most at Risk for Developing Physical Aggression After Playing Violent Video Games? An Individual Differences Perspective From Early Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood
Religiosity from Age 12 to 20: Stability, Change, and Bidirectional Effects of Attendance, Prayer, and Salience
Religiosity is a protective factor for adolescents, though research has indicated religiosity declines across adolescence. However, little research has examined how various dimensions of religiosity may change across time. With yearly data from a sample of 489 participants, the current study examined rank-order and mean level changes in religiosity from early adolescence (12 years-old) into late adolescence/emerging adulthood (20 years-old). Thre…
Parenting Style and Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia
This longitudinal study was conducted with 262 adolescents (M age = 15.3) and their parents to examine adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; baseline and reactivity) as a moderator of the relationship between parenting style and adolescent externalizing behaviors. This was conceptualized within the differential susceptibility to the environment framework, which proposes that children with greater sensitivity to environmental influences be…
Parents and adolescents growing up in the digital age: Latent growth curve analysis of proactive media monitoring
The current study examined how parents' use of restrictive and active monitoring and deference changed over three years, and examined both adolescent and parent characteristics as predictors of initial levels of media monitoring, as well as change in media monitoring. Participants included 276 mother–child dyads ( M age of child = 12.08, SD = .63, 50% female) taken from Time 2 of the Flourishing Families Project, 96% of whom had complete data for…
Imprisoned Fathers and Their Family Relationships: A 40‐Year Review From a Multi‐Theory View
This article reviews the literature on family relationships of incarcerated fathers, examining the literature's topics, samples, and theories. Nineteen studies were identified that treated fatherhood as a primary construct, with 20 relating indirectly to fatherhood. Various theories were represented in the literature, yet with a general lack of studies theoretically building on one another. This article synthesizes the research and theoretical wo…
Keep on Keeping On, Even When It’s Hard!”: Predictors and Outcomes of Adolescent Persistence
The current study examined adolescent persistence as a mediator between authoritative parenting and adolescents’ school engagement, prosocial behavior, and delinquency. Participants were taken from Time 2, 3, and 4 of the Flourishing Families Project and included 325 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 11 and 14 at Time 2 (mean age = 12.34, SD = 1.06, 52% female), 96% of whom had complete data for Time 4 (2 years later). Analyses…
Using Mixture Regression to Identify Varying Effects: A Demonstration With Paternal Incarceration
The most widely used techniques for identifying the varying effects of stressors involve testing moderator effects via interaction terms in regression or multiple-group analysis in structural equation modeling. The authors present mixture regression as an alternative approach. In contrast to more widely used approaches, mixture regression identifies varying effects without reliance on tests of moderator variables, such as using interaction terms …
Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior Toward Family, Friends, and Strangers: A Person‐Centered Approach
This study examined longitudinal change in adolescents' prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers. Participants included 491 mother–child dyads (average age of child at Time 1 = 11.5, 67% European American). Growth mixture modeling suggested that prosocial behavior toward family was generally stable or decreased over time, while prosocial behavior toward friends increased over time. However, findings highlighted unique developmenta…
Marital conflict and growth in children's internalizing symptoms: The role of autonomic nervous system activity
We assessed trajectories of children's internalizing symptoms, indexed through anxiety and depression, with a focus on the role of interactions between interparental marital conflict, children's sympathetic nervous system activity indexed by skin conductance level (SCL), and parasympathetic nervous system activity indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as predictors of growth. Children participated in 3 waves of data collection with a 1-ye…
Wrestling Proteus: Assessing the Varying Nature of Father Involvement Across Contexts
This study investigated the common assumption that measures of father involvement are invariant across child age, gender, and reporter. Measurement invariance was tested with 320 families who were interviewed at child ages 10, 12, and 14. Criterion validity was also examined, using observational, survey, and physiologic measures with factor rotation type considered. It was found that invariance did not hold across gender for child report but did …
Father Involvement and Maternal Depressive Symptoms in Families of Children with Disabilities or Delays
Fathers in Cultural Context
The Vital Role of Measurement Equivalence in Family Research
The construct is the most basic aspect of a theoretical model. Whether a construct is equivalent across groups or time is a vital consideration when testing theory. However, examining construct equivalence is often not well understood either conceptually or statistically. This article provides a conceptual and statistical overview of construct equivalence as well as a rationale for its increased use. An example of testing for equivalence is also …
Investigating Family Shared Realities With Factor Mixture Modeling
The authors introduce factor mixture modeling (FMM) and its implications for assessing varying degrees of shared reality in families. FMM extends the typical factor analytic model that uses a set of observed indicators to identify an unobservable factor and its structure. FMM examines the possibility a sample is a mixture of "classes," each with unique factor structures. To demonstrate, varying factor structures of father involvement are identifi…
Parenting Style and Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia
This longitudinal study was conducted with 262 adolescents (M age = 15.3) and their parents to examine adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; baseline and reactivity) as a moderator of the relationship between parenting style and adolescent externalizing behaviors. This was conceptualized within the differential susceptibility to the environment framework, which proposes that children with greater sensitivity to environmental influences be…
Family Financial Stress and Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking: The Role of Self-Regulation
Exploring hope as a mediator between religiosity and depression in adolescents
Multiple studies have found an inverse relationship between adolescent religiosity and adolescent depression. However, further research is needed to better understand the complexity of this relationship. One potential mediator that may help to explain this relationship is hope. Prior research has found that adolescent religiosity is predictive of increased adolescent hope and that higher levels of adolescent hope have been associated with multipl…
Jailed Fathers and Family Complexity
When individuals have biological children with more than one partner (multipartner fertility [MPF]), they, on average, experience less ability to care for their children and work with coparents (compared with those with children from a single partner or fewer partners). These problems can be further exacerbated when one partner is incarcerated. Under such conditions, service agencies are particularly crucial for these families. For services to be…
Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence
A burgeoning literature supports the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as an index of physiologic sensitivity to the environment, but extant research is limited in its focus on single branches of the ANS, childhood samples, and solely negative environmental factors. This study seeks to address these limitations by exploring whether reactivity in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems jointly moderate the …
Advancing Research and Measurement on Fathering and Children’s Development
Fathers are more than social accidents. Research has demonstrated that fathers matter to children’s development. Despite noted progress, challenges remain on how best to conceptualize and assess fathering and father–child relationships. The current monograph is the result of an SRCD-sponsored meeting of fatherhood scholars brought together to discuss these challenges and make recommendations for best practices for incorporating fathers in studies…
From parent to child: Family factors that influence faith transmission
Grace, legalism, and mental health: Examining direct and mediating relationships
Religiosity from Age 12 to 20: Stability, Change, and Bidirectional Effects of Attendance, Prayer, and Salience
Religiosity is a protective factor for adolescents, though research has indicated religiosity declines across adolescence. However, little research has examined how various dimensions of religiosity may change across time. With yearly data from a sample of 489 participants, the current study examined rank-order and mean level changes in religiosity from early adolescence (12 years-old) into late adolescence/emerging adulthood (20 years-old). Thre…
Development and Initial Validation of the Perceived Power Imbalance Scale
Suicide Risk in Emerging Adulthood: Associations with Screen Time over 10 years
One Line of Sexual Decline? Growth Mixture Modeling for Midlife Sexual Satisfaction
Adolescent suicide ideation in Utah: The role of religion and family
Refining research on the intersection between sexual orientation, suicide, and religiosity
Psychology (32 works) · Developmental psychology (24 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (14 works) · Medicine (14 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works) · Psychiatry (9 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (8 works)