Dr. Andres De Los Reyes

My research interests are in identifying evidence-based interventions, clinical assessment, and developmental psychopathology. A primary aim of my research program is to incorporate basic and applied research and theory on normative and abnormal psychological processes to understand broad constructs and issues in psychological science, namely: (a) the identification of evidence-based interventions amidst inconsistent outcomes in research evidence, (b) inconsistencies in providing information among information sources relied on to gather research evidence, and (c) how inconsistent perceptions among information sources impact functioning within and between sources.

A core component of my research program developed from an interest in how research in the applied psychological sciences is used to decide whether interventions developed to change human behaviors actually change such behaviors. Specifically, multiple disciplines, including dentistry, education, medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work to mention a few seek to identify evidence-based interventions: Specific interventions, therapies, or programs that successfully target and change specific problem domains or behaviors (e.g., academic achievement, depression, juvenile delinquency, hypertension). Identifying evidence-based interventions involves evaluating outcomes of randomized controlled trials, and determining whether interventions "outperform" control or alternative intervention conditions. However, controlled trials often evaluate outcomes in multiple ways, and within a single study, inconsistencies often result from multiple outcomes meant to assess change in the same behavior or set of behaviors. Thus, at the end of controlled trials, statements can often range from concluding that the intervention is evidence-based, to concluding that it is not evidence-based, or to concluding that the evidence is mixed and it depends on the measure. Thus, I am interested in what inconsistencies in research evidence reveal about whether interventions change behavior, and developing theoretical models that identify evidence-based interventions while taking into account inconsistent evidence.

My research on identifying evidence-based interventions is driven by a theoretical model I developed with Dr. Alan Kazdin that was published in the Psychological Review, and that accounts for inconsistencies in research evidence within and between studies. The basis for the model lies in the idea that inconsistencies are perhaps indicative of two factors: (a) the complex and multifaceted nature of behaviors targeted in intervention research, and (b) there may be instances in which interventions either successfully or unsuccessfully target and change behavior. Inconsistencies are likely systematic, predictable, and useful for identifying circumstances in which interventions yield robust effects. This line of research has resulted in the development of a theoretical and methodological framework, the Range of Possible Changes (RPC) Model, to guide the study of change in intervention research (De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2006). Briefly, the RPC Model takes into account inconsistencies in research evidence to identify evidence-based interventions, via an examination of the consistencies by which similar and disparate ways of gauging intervention outcomes yield similar conclusions. Recently, I completed a project that applies this model to the meta-analytic study of interventions, and illustrated that the model yields findings that cannot be gleaned from current approaches to reviewing and classifying evidence.

My research on the identification of evidence-based interventions has informed a secondary component of my research program, namely informant discrepancies in clinical child assessment. The findings of the meta-analysis mentioned previously often identified consistencies in effects specific to particular informants relied on to measure outcomes. It turns out that this finding is consistent with a long line of clinical research on both adults and children suggesting multiple informants' ratings of the same behavior are often inconsistent with one another (Achenbach, 2006; De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2005, 2006). Given the implications of such inconsistencies for identifying evidence-based interventions, I have become interested in these issues, particularly as they relate to clinical child assessment. The goals of this research are to understand why informant discrepancies exist, develop procedures to experimentally manipulate the level of correspondence among informants' ratings, and examine the instances in which discrepancies might provide useful markers or predictors of functioning. Consistent with this aim, I have conducted work addressing the following questions: (a) How should discrepancies be measured? (b) How can one incorporate basic socio-cognitive research and theory to inform theoretical models of discrepancies? (c) How do discrepant perceptions among informants relate to how informants interact with one another?

Editorial Boards

International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology


Ad hoc Reviewer

Child Abuse and Neglect
Child: Care, Health, and Development
Depression and Anxiety
Developmental Psychology
Harvard Review of Psychiatry
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
Journal of the Am. Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Journal of Pediatric Psychology
Journal of Personality
Psychological Assessment
Psychological Review

Chaired Symposia

De Los Reyes, A. (2008, November). We have great treatments, and...: New and continued challenges facing the evidence-based treatment movement. Symposium to be conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Orlando, FL.

De Los Reyes, A., & Goodman, K.L. (2007, November). Informant discrepancies in the clinical sciences: Assessment, diagnostic, and treatment implications for adult and youth populations. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Philadelphia, PA.

De Los Reyes, A. (2006, May). A new look at the evidence (and non-evidence) for evidence-based interventions. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY.

De Los Reyes, A., & Saavedra, L.M. (2004, November). Informant discrepancies in clinical child research: Processes of informant discrepancies and distortions and impact on clinical decision-making. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.

De Los Reyes, A., & Saavedra, L.M. (2003, November). Impact of rater discordance and distortions on the clinical assessment of child psychopathology. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, MA.


Paper Presentations

De Los Reyes, A. (2008, November). Identifying evidence-based interventions using the range of possible changes model: A meta-analytic illustration. Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Orlando, FL.

Goodman, K.L., De Los Reyes, A., Kliewer, W., & Reid-Quiñones, K.R. (2007, November). Whose depression relates to informant discrepancies? Testing relations between informant characteristics and discrepancies from the perspectives of both informants. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Philadelphia, PA.

De Los Reyes, A., & Kazdin, A.E. (2006, May). Conceptualizing changes in behavior in intervention research: The range of possible changes model. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, New York, NY.

De Los Reyes, A., Saavedra, L.M., & Silverman, W.K. (2004, November). Implications of mothers' psychopathology-related distortions for clinical decision-making in the diagnosis of anxiety and evaluation of functional impairment in clinic-referred youth. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.

De Los Reyes, A., Saavedra, L.M., Pina, A.A., & Silverman, W.K. (2003, November). Predicting mothers' diagnostic, symptom, and questionnaire ratings of anxiety and phobia in youth: the role of maternal psychopathology and psychopathology-related distortions. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, MA.

De Los Reyes, A. (2001, November). Maternal over-reporting of children's fears: How does it relate to medication usage and school refusal behavior? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association's Psychology Research Initiatives Mentorship Experience, Miami, FL.

De Los Reyes, A., Compain, J., Fernandez, G., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, April). Traumatic exposure, depression, and their effects on discrepancies among parent reports, child self-reports, and clinician diagnosis. Paper presented at the annual Carolinas Psychology Conference, Raleigh, NC.


Poster Presentations

Aldao, A., De Los Reyes, A., Borrelli, J., & Mennin, D. (2008, November). Childhood emotion regulation as an associative characteristic of informant discrepancies in clinical child assessment: A multi-informant, comprehensive examination. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Orlando, FL.

De Los Reyes, A., & Kazdin, A.E. (2004, November). Measuring informant discrepancies in clinical child research. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.

De Los Reyes, A., & Prinstein, M.J. (2003, November). Applying depression-distortion hypotheses to the assessment of peer victimization in adolescents. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, MA.

De Los Reyes, A., & Kazdin, A.E. (2003, November). Discrepancies between maternal and child perceptions of child behavior problems predict deficits in family functioning: a mediation model. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston, MA.

Lopez, B., De Los Reyes, A., Silverman, W.K. (2002, November). Evaluating the reliability and validity of the Children's Global Assessment Scale in youth with anxiety disorders. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Reno, NV.

Saavedra, L.M., De Los Reyes, A., Goldman, M.L., Ortiz, C.D., Silverman, W.K., & Serafini, L.T. (2002, November). Exposure to community crime and violence among Hispanic Adolescents: Risk and protective factors. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Reno, NV.

De Los Reyes, A., & Silverman, W.K. (2002, April). Differences in agreement between parent reports and adolescent and child self-reports of internalizing symptoms. Poster session presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Adolescence, New Orleans, LA.

De Los Reyes, A., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, November). Anxiety, depression, and fear and its influence on parent over-reporting of child anxiety and fear. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Philadelphia, PA.

De Los Reyes, A., Compain, J., Fernandez, G., Pina, A., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, August). Child anxiety diagnosis: Parent versus clinician accuracy following traumatic exposure. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Fernandez, G., Ali, H., Compain, J., De Los Reyes, A., & Berman, S.L. (2001, August). The role of attachment in separation anxiety. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

De Los Reyes, A., Compain, J., Fernandez, G., Pina, A., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, July). Parental perception of child anxiety: the effects of traumatic exposure. Poster session presented at the World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Fernandez, G., Ali, H., Compain, J., De Los Reyes, A., & Berman, S.L. (2001, July). Etiology and developmental continuity of child attachment. Poster session presented at the World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Vancouver, British Columbia.

De Los Reyes, A., Compain, J., Fernandez, G., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, June). Depression and parental misperception of child anxiety following traumatic exposure. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Toronto, Ontario.

Fernandez, G., Ali, H., Compain, J., De Los Reyes, A., & Berman, S.L. (2001, June). Developmental continuity of child attachment and separation anxiety. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Toronto, Ontario.

De Los Reyes, A., Compain, J., Fernandez, G., Pina, A., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, March). The impact of parental exposure to traumatic events on child anxiety. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.

Fernandez, G., Ali, H., Compain, J., De Los Reyes, A., Berman, S.L., & Silverman, W.K. (2001, March). Prediction of separation anxiety within developmental levels. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, Atlanta, GA.


Invited Lectures

De Los Reyes, A. (February, 2007). Informant discrepancies in the assessment of childhood psychopathology. Yale University, Course: Developmental Psychology and Social Intervention, Professor: Joseph L. Mahoney, Ph.D. New Haven, CT.

De Los Reyes, A. (May, 2005). Undergraduate research fellowships and the graduate school experience. Florida International University, Course: Psychology Research Initiatives Mentorship Experience (PRIME) Seminar, Professor: Marilyn Montgomery, Ph.D. Miami, FL.

Perepletchikova, F., & De Los Reyes, A. (co-lecturers; February, 2004). The disruptive behavior disorders. Wesleyan University, Course: Childhood Psychopathology, Professor: Lisa C. Dierker, Ph.D. Middletown, CT.

De Los Reyes, A. (November, 2003; March, 2004). The graduate school process. Yale University, Child Conduct Clinic, Director: Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D. New Haven, CT.

De Los Reyes, A. (2003, September). Mother-child discrepancies in perceptions of child behavior problems as a predictor of maternal stress and mother-child conflict: a mediational model. Paper presented at Yale University, Department of Psychology weekly Clinical Lunch Series, New Haven, CT.

De Los Reyes, A. (June, 2003). Attending graduate school out of state. Florida International University, Course: Psychology Research Initiatives Mentorship Experience (PRIME) Seminar, Professor: Marilyn Montgomery, Ph.D. Miami, FL.


Departmental Colloquia

De Los Reyes, A. (December 2007; January 2008; February 2008). When the evidence says, "Yes, no, and maybe so": How inconsistent findings inform clinical science. Departmental colloquia presented at Case Western Reserve University, Florida State University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, Rutgers University at New Brunswick, Southern Methodist University, Temple University, University of California at Irvine, University of Denver, University of Maryland at College Park, University of Massachusetts at Boston, University of Miami, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Virginia Tech.


Panel Discussions

Graduate school options in psychology (October, 2002). Panel discussion organized by the Yale University Chapter of Psi Chi National Honor Society, Yale University, New Haven, CT.