Why Kolabtree

Getting started is quick and easy. No upfront fees

It’s free to request a service and invite bids from experts

Discuss requirements with the expert in detail before accepting statement of work from Kolabtree

Collaborate with the expert directly to get your work done the right way

Fund project when you hire the expert, but approve the deliverables only once work is done

Contact Sam H.

Contact

Why Kolabtree

Want to hire this expert for a project? Request a quote for free.

Profile Details

Create Project

★★★★★

☆☆☆☆☆

USD 100 /hr

★★★★★

☆☆☆☆☆

Hire Sam H.

United States

USD 100 /hr

Psychology Research Consultant | Study Design, Literature Reviews, & Interpretation

Profile Summary

I’m a social scientist with over 25 years of experience conducting and advising on research in developmental, social, and clinical-adjacent psychology. My substantive expertise centers on adolescence and young adulthood, with particular emphasis on positive youth development, morality and character, self and identity, religion and spirituality, parenting, motivation, and both positive and negative developmental outcomes.

Methodologically, I work across quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, and longitudinal designs. I have experience with survey research, experience sampling, experiments, and program evaluation, and I have worked with both original and archival data. My quantitative work includes regression-based approaches, structural equation modeling, longitudinal analyses, and psychometric development, primarily using SPSS, Stata, and Mplus. I also have experience with qualitative coding and analysis in NVivo, and my team has explored the use of AI large language models to support qualitative coding.

I have published empirical studies and systematic and narrative literature reviews in peer-reviewed journals, as well as chapters in scholarly handbooks. I have also written research reports, white papers, and articles for public audiences, translating complex findings into clear and accessible conclusions.

As a consultant, I work across all phases of the research process. This includes reviewing literature, refining research questions, advising on study design, making defensible analytic decisions, interpreting results, and helping ensure that findings are communicated clearly, accurately, and in ways that align with the research questions, data, and analyses. Clients often involve me early in projects to clarify direction or later to strengthen interpretation and reporting. I am especially well-suited for projects that benefit from careful thinking about design, interpretation, and writing, rather than highly specialized computational or data science approaches.

Subject Matter Expertise

Services

Writing
Research
Consulting
Data & AI

Writing Technical Writing, Newswriting, General Proofreading & Editing

Research Meta-Research, Feasibility Study, Gap Analysis, Gray Literature Search, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review, Secondary Data Collection

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Data Visualization, Text Mining & Analytics, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing, Data Insights

Work Experience

Professor

Brigham Young University

2007 - Present

Education

PhD (Psychology)

University of Nebraska–Lincoln

2000 - 2005

Certifications

n/a

n/a

January 2026 - January 2026

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

(2026). Longitudinal Associations and Interactions of Adolescent Religious Deidentification and Parental Sanctification on parent-Adolescent Relationships . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION.

(2026). Religious Deidentification and Positive and Negative Youth Functioning in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION.

(2025). Adolescent Religiosity and Psychological Functioning During the COVID-19 Pandemic . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2025). Individual, family, peer, and religious community predictors of adolescent religious deidentification . APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE.

(2025). Religious Dones Become More Politically Liberal After Leaving Religion . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2025). The Temporal Relationship Between Religious Motivations and Purpose: A Cross-Lagged Panel Model Approach . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2025). What Factors Buffer the Effects of Parent-Adolescent Religious Discrepancy to Preserve Parent-Child Connectedness? . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2024). Does Leaving Faith Mean Leaving Family? Longitudinal Associations Between Religious Identification and Parent-Child Relationships Across Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood . JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION.

(2024). Religious deconversion in adolescence and young adulthood: A literature review . ARCHIVE FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION-ARCHIV FUR RELIGIONSPSYCHOLOGIE.

(2024). Religious exemplars' experience of indebtedness to God: employing innovative machine learning to explore a novel construct . JOURNAL OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY.

(2024). Returning thanks to God and others: prosocial consequences of transcendent indebtedness . JOURNAL OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY.

(2024). The interactive roles of religion, parenting, and sex communication in adolescent sexual risk-taking . APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE.

(2024). The past, present, and future of research on religious and spiritual development in adolescence, young adulthood, and beyond . ARCHIVE FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION-ARCHIV FUR RELIGIONSPSYCHOLOGIE.

(2023). Declines in Religiousness Dimensions across Adolescence as Predictors of Religious Deidentification in Youth Adulthood . JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE.

(2023). Qualitatively exploring repentance processes, antecedents, motivations, resources, and outcomes in Latter-day Saints . ARCHIVE FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION-ARCHIV FUR RELIGIONSPSYCHOLOGIE.

(2023). Transcendent Indebtedness to God: A New Construct in the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2023). Unpacking the role of adolescent religious affiliation in youth outcomes . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2022). Adolescent Religious Motivation: A Self-Determination Theory Approach . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION.

(2022). Adolescent Suicide Ideation in Utah: The Role of Religion and Family . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2022). Adolescent motivations to abstain from sex and alcohol: a self-determination theory approach . APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE.

(2022). Daily moral identity: Linkages with integrity and compassion . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2022). FAMILY RELIGIOUSNESS, PEER RELIGIOUSNESS, AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY SUPPORTIVENESS AS DEVELOPMENTAL CONTEXTS OF ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT RELIGIOUS DEIDENTIFICATION . RESEARCH IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.

(2022). Religiosity from Age 12 to 20: Stability, Change, and Bidirectional Effects of Attendance, Prayer, and Salience . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION.

(2022). What Aspects of Religiosity are Associated with Values? . JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION.

(2021). Developmental Perspectives on Adolescent Religious and Spiritual Development . ADOLESCENT RESEARCH REVIEW.

(2021). Introduction to Special Issue: Diverse Disciplinary Approaches to the Study of Adolescent Religious and Spiritual Development . ADOLESCENT RESEARCH REVIEW.

(2021). Moral Values in Moral Psychology . JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2021). Religious Identity and Morality: Evidence for Religious Residue and Decay in Moral Foundations . PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN.

(2021). The values of religious nones, dones, and sacralized Americans: Links between changes in religious affiliation and Schwartz values . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2020). Dynamic Associations Between Religiousness and Self-Regulation Across Adolescence Into Young Adulthood . DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2020). Longitudinal relations between substance use abstinence motivations and substance use behaviors in adolescence: A self-determination theory approach . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2020). Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2020). Van Tongeren et al. (2020) - PSPB - Religious Residue and Morality . PsyArXiv.

(2019). Factor Structure of the Brief Comprehensive Effects of Alcohol Scale in Adolescents . ASSESSMENT.

(2019). Processes of Religious and Spiritual Influence in Adolescence: A Systematic Review of 30 Years of Research . JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE.

(2019). Processes of Religious and Spiritual Influence in Adolescence: Introduction to a Special Section . JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE.

(2019). Spirituality and Ethnocultural Empathy Among Italian Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Religious Identity Formation Processes . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2019). The socialization of attitudes about sex and their role in adolescent pornography use . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2018). Associations among body dissatisfaction, gender, and three latent profiles of religiosity . MENTAL HEALTH RELIGION & CULTURE.

(2018). Understanding the Roles of Religiosity and Spirituality in Emerging Adults in the United States . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2017). Bidirectional relations between different forms of prosocial behaviors and substance use among female college student athletes . JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2017). Religiosity and Chastity Among Single Young Adults and Married Adults . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2017). The Integration of Personal Identity, Religious Identity, and Moral Identity in Emerging Adulthood . IDENTITY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY AND RESEARCH.

(2017). Youth motivation as a predictor of treatment outcomes in a community mental health system . PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH.

(2015). Adolescent Motivations to Engage in Pro-Social Behaviors and Abstain From Health-Risk Behaviors: A Self-Determination Theory Approach . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2015). Identity Centrality and Psychosocial Functioning: A Person-Centered Approach . EMERGING ADULTHOOD.

(2015). Identity in young adulthood: Links with mental health and risky behavior . JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2015). Implicit theories of intellectual virtues and vices: A focus on intellectual humility . JOURNAL OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY.

(2015). Moral Identity and Adolescent Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors: Interactions with Moral Disengagement and Self-regulation . JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE.

(2015). Religiousness and Levels of Hazardous Alcohol Use: A Latent Profile Analysis . JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE.

(2014). Daily Religious Involvement, Spirituality, and Moral Emotions . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2014). Meaning in Life in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach . JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY.

(2014). Moral Identity as Moral Ideal Self: Links to Adolescent Outcomes . DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2013). Adolescent religiousness as a protective factor against pornography use . JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2013). Adolescent-parent attachment as a mediator of relations between parenting and adolescent social behavior and wellbeing in China . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY.

(2013). Good Choices, Poor Choices: Relationship Between the Quality of Identity Commitments and Psychosocial Functioning . EMERGING ADULTHOOD.

(2013). Identity Dimensions and Related Processes in Emerging Adulthood: Helpful or Harmful? . JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2013). Individual, Family, and Peer predictors of Violence Among Samoan Adolescents . YOUTH & SOCIETY.

(2013). Religiousness and hazardous alcohol use: A conditional indirect effects model . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2013). The Roles of Identity Formation and Moral Identity in College Student Mental Health, Health-risk Behaviors, and Psychological Well-Being . JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY.

(2012). Religiosity and Adolescent Empathy and Aggression: The Mediating Role of Moral Identity . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2012). Religious Exploration Among Highly Religious American Adolescents . IDENTITY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY AND RESEARCH.

(2011). Adolescent Hope as a Mediator Between Parent-Child Connectedness and Adolescent Outcomes . JOURNAL OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE.

(2011). Adolescent Naturalistic Conceptions of Moral Maturity . SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

(2011). Anchors of Religious Commitment in Adolescents . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT RESEARCH.

(2011). Community and religious involvement as contexts of identity change across late adolescence and emerging adulthood . INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT.

(2011). Examining the Light and Dark Sides of Emerging Adults' Identity: A Study of Identity Status Differences in Positive and Negative Psychosocial Functioning . JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE.

(2011). Moral Identity . HANDBOOK OF IDENTITY THEORY AND RESEARCH, VOLS 1 AND 2.

(2011). Moral Identity: What Is It, How Does It Develop, and Is It Linked to Moral Action? . CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES.

(2011). Parenting and the Socialization of Religiousness and Spirituality . PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY.

(2011). Relational and social-cognitive correlates of early adolescents' forgiveness of parents . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2011). The Roles of Shame and Guilt in Hypersexual Behavior . SEXUAL ADDICTION & COMPULSIVITY-THE JOURNAL OF TREATMENT AND PREVENTION.

(2010). A Preliminary Study of an Online Psychoeducational Program for Hypersexuality . SEXUAL ADDICTION & COMPULSIVITY-THE JOURNAL OF TREATMENT AND PREVENTION.

(2010). Links Between Adolescents' Expected Parental Reactions and Prosocial Behavioral Tendencies: The Mediating Role of Prosocial Values . JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE.

(2010). Moral identity and psychological distance: The case of adolescent parental socialization . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.

(2009). Adaptive adjustment of vocational aspirations among German youths during the transition from school to work . JOURNAL OF VOCATIONAL BEHAVIOR.

(2009). Rejoinder to Commentaries on Nesselroade, Gerstorf, Hardy, and Ram . MEASUREMENT-INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND PERSPECTIVES.

(2009). Using latent growth curve modeling in clinical treatment research: An example comparing guided self-change and cognitive behavioral therapy treatments for bulimia nervosa. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY.

(2008). Parenting dimensions and adolescents' internalisation of moral values . JOURNAL OF MORAL EDUCATION.

(2007). Academic background and course involvement as predictors of exam performance . TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY.

(2007). Development and confirmatory factor analysis of the community norms of child neglect scale . CHILD MALTREATMENT.

(2007). Idiographic Filters for Psychological Constructs . MEASUREMENT-INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND PERSPECTIVES.

(2007). Using latent growth, curve modeling in clinical treatment research: Comparing guided self-change and cognitive behavioral therapy treatments for bulimia nervosa . EUROPEAN PSYCHIATRY.

(2006). Early predictors of self-regulation in middle childhood . INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT.

(2006). Identity Statuses and Prosocial Behaviors in Young Adulthood: A Brief Report . IDENTITY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY AND RESEARCH.

(2006). Identity, reasoning, and emotion: An empirical comparison of three sources of moral motivation . MOTIVATION AND EMOTION.

(2005). Identity as a source of moral motivation . HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.

(2005). Religiosity and prosocial behaviours in adolescence: the mediating role of prosocial values . JOURNAL OF MORAL EDUCATION.

(2003). Adolescent religiosity and sexuality: an investigation of reciprocal influences . JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENCE.