About

Daniel Bolt is the Nancy C. Hoefs-Bascom Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in quantitative methods. His methodological research has focused on the theory and application of psychometric methods in the educational, social, and health sciences, including topics such as latent variable models for measurement validation, computational methods, novel item formats, computer-based testing, assessment of individual differences like response styles, and modeling student growth. More recently, his interests have expanded to include educational data science and psychometrics. Bolt collaborates as a biostatistician at the Waisman Center on various research projects in the social and health sciences. He teaches courses in test theory, factor analysis, and hierarchical linear modeling. Bolt has served as President of the Psychometric Society from 2019 to 2021 and has received several awards, including the Vilas Associates Research Award, the Kellett Mid-Career Award, and a Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Internal medicine
• Clinical psychology
• Natural Language Processing
• Statistics
• Mathematics
• Psychotherapist
• Speech recognition
• Audiology
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Tracking fraction knowledge development using grade-appropriate assessments

  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · 2026-02-25

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Categorizing health beliefs among cancer survivors using latent profile analysis to identify targets for promoting medication adherence and quality of life

  Scientific Reports · 2026-05-22

  articleOpen access

  Nearly half of cancer survivors are nonadherent to oral anticancer medications (OAM), yet no studies have systematically examined health belief profiles or identified belief-based intervention targets to improve adherence and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). This study aimed to categorize distinct health belief profiles and examine their associations with medication adherence and HRQoL among cancer survivors. This cross-sectional online survey study recruited participants from two crowdsourcing panels across the U.S. between June and July 2024. Latent profile analysis was used to categorize participants’ patterns of health beliefs. Eligibilities were self-reported who had a cancer diagnosis and were currently taking at least one OAM. Participants completed a 54-item online survey assessing cancer perceptions, beliefs about OAMs, medication adherence and HRQoL. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate regression analysis were conducted to compare group differences and examine the associations between health belief profiles, adherence and HRQoL. Among 323 respondents, three distinct health belief profiles emerged, significantly associated with adherence (adjusted R2 = 0.491, F change = 27.07, p < 0.01) and HRQoL (adjusted R2 = 0.286, F change = 6.12, p < 0.01). The Optimistic and adaptive profile (13.3%) demonstrated strong understanding of OAM use, greater perceived control over recurrence, fewer negative cancer consequences, and high perceived necessity with minimal concerns about medication. The Conscious but hesitant profile (30.7%) maintained balanced perceptions of cancer and treatment but reported the lowest perceived necessity for medication. The Overwhelmed and unaware profile, the largest subgroup (56.0%), exhibited greater perceived cancer consequences, higher treatment concerns, the lowest adherence and the lowest HRQoL. Subgroup analysis revealed that specific beliefs significantly associated with nonadherence (perceived risk of recurrence) and HRQoL (cancer and treatment consequences and emotional responses), suggesting that reframing negative beliefs may improve outcomes. To support sustained medication adherence and HRQoL, interventions should focus on enhancing patient education about the role of OAMs in cancer control, addressing concerns about side effects, and enhancing access to resources that alleviate cancer-related consequences. Future research should explore the mechanisms through which health beliefs affect adherence and identify unmet emotional and informational needs among cancer survivors.

  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing student math achievement through a digital wellbeing training for educators

  2026-01-08

  articleOpen access

  Improving teaching is one approach to enhancing student educational achievement, but improving teacher effectiveness is challenging. In a preregistered randomized controlled trial of a digital wellbeing training with pK-12 school system employees (SSEs; n=827), assignment to the intervention predicted significant improvements in wellbeing. In teacher effects analyses (teacher n=234 to 238; student n=11,361 to 11,439), teacher assignment to the intervention predicted statistically significant, moderate magnitude student gains on end of year math standardized achievement equivalent one extra month of schooling. Small magnitude, non-significant gains were observed on reading assessments. Digital wellbeing training for SSEs is a scalable approach to addressing several educational system challenges, including the high rates of SSE distress and the urgent need to recover student learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  PublisherDOI

• Enhancing student math achievement through a digital wellbeing training for educators

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-01-07

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Improving teaching is one approach to enhancing student educational achievement, but improving teacher effectiveness is challenging. In a preregistered randomized controlled trial of a digital wellbeing training with pK-12 school system employees (SSEs; n=827), assignment to the intervention predicted significant improvements in wellbeing. In teacher effects analyses (teacher n=234 to 238; student n=11,361 to 11,439), teacher assignment to the intervention predicted statistically significant, moderate magnitude student gains on end of year math standardized achievement equivalent one extra month of schooling. Small magnitude, non-significant gains were observed on reading assessments. Digital wellbeing training for SSEs is a scalable approach to addressing several educational system challenges, including the high rates of SSE distress and the urgent need to recover student learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Publisher

• Psychometric validation of the Spanish-versions of the Vanderbilt fatigue scales for adults

  International Journal of Audiology · 2025-05-15 · 1 citations

  article

  OBJECTIVE: Listening-related fatigue can be a significant problem for some people with hearing loss. However, such fatigue is rarely assessed by audiologists due, in part, to the scarcity of assessment tools, especially in non-English languages. The goal of this study was to validate the short and long versions of the Spanish Vanderbilt Fatigue Scales for Adults (SP-VFS-As). DESIGN: A between-groups, cross-sectional, study was used to evaluate the psychometric properties, validity, and reliability of the SP-VFS-As. Participants completed the scales online using Qualtrics software. STUDY SAMPLE: Participants were 287 adults between 18 to >86 years old (206 females; 117 with hearing loss) from 17 countries. Of these, 81 participants completed the scales a second time for reliability purposes. RESULTS: Analyses revealed excellent known-groups validity. The test-retest reliability showed high internal consistency. Factor analyses suggested a unidimensional structure for the scales, consistent with the original English versions. CONCLUSIONS: The SP-VFS-As are psychometrically valid, reliable, and appropriate for assessing listening-related fatigue in Spanish speakers.

  PublisherDOI

• Effects of very low nicotine cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and nicotine patches on daily own-cigarette abstinence in a randomized controlled switching trial

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2025-01-30 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Response Anchoring and Student Disengagement on Self-Report Rating Scale Measures of Social-Emotional Learning

  Educational Assessment · 2025-05-06

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Expanding the scope of the withdrawal syndrome: Anhedonia as a core nicotine withdrawal symptom.

  Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science · 2025-04-07 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  < .001) post-TQD. These effects remained even after controlling for other withdrawal symptoms and individual characteristics. Gold standard smoking pharmacotherapies had comparable statistical effects on anhedonia's trajectory and association with abstinence during treatment. The results replicate and extend previous research supporting anhedonia as a motivationally significant symptom of nicotine withdrawal. The results suggest anhedonia not only conforms to features of a tobacco withdrawal symptom but is associated with difficulty stopping smoking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Genotype-Phenotype Association for 14 <i>GFAP</i> Variants in Alexander Disease

  Neurology Genetics · 2025-06-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background and Objectives: (glial fibrillary acidic protein). Over 180 variants have been associated with the disease, with a wide spectrum of severity and clinical manifestations. Previous attempts at genotype-phenotype correlations have been hampered by the small numbers of cases that have been published for many of the variants. We sought to determine whether genotype-phenotype correlations could be discerned from available information. Methods: for which 7 or more unrelated cases had been either published or identified through an ongoing natural history study and other sources (with a closing date of July 27, 2024). For each of these cases, we tabulated age at onset, age at death (or last contact), and sex. We used a Kruskal-Wallis test to evaluate statistical differences in age at onset in relation to variant. Differences in survival across variants were studied using Kaplan-Meier curves. Results: Fourteen variants met our criteria for detailed analysis (10 with 7 or more unrelated cases and 4 additional variants involving 2 of the most commonly affected amino acids, R79 and R239) derived from a total of 231 cases. The variants seem to fall into 3 distinct groups-some with consistent early onsets (N77S, R79C and R79L, and most of the R239s), some with consistent late onsets (R70W and N386S), and some with more variable onsets (R416W). Pairwise comparison results found that R239H was associated with significantly earlier onsets than R239C. We found similar groupings for survival. Finally, we evaluated sex as a potential modifying factor for either age at onset or survival but found no significant association. Discussion: Genotype-phenotype correlations do exist in Alexander disease, at least for a limited number of GFAP variants for which sufficient numbers of individual cases can be identified to allow valid statistical analysis.

  PublisherDOI

• Tracking fraction knowledge development using grade-appropriate assessment

  2025-09-08

  preprintOpen access

  Fraction knowledge predicts higher-order mathematics. Valid measures are crucial for understanding its developmental trajectory. This accelerated longitudinal study designed and validated grade-appropriate versions of the Fraction Knowledge Assessment (FKA) and examined children's development from 2nd to 6th grade. Methods: We measured the fraction knowledge of 342 children. We assessed FKAs reliability, validity, and factor structure and used Item Response Theory (IRT) to calibrate item difficulty and link across versions. Then, we investigated longitudinal changes in children’s fraction knowledge. Results and Conclusion: All FKAs had good internal consistency and concurrent validity, and fit well with a one-dimensional model. IRT analyses revealed a shift from fraction magnitude items discriminating students in early grades, to operation items discriminating students in advanced grades. Development was more pronounced from 2nd to 3rd than from 5th to 6th grade, aligning with local curricula. We share the FKA versions to support further research and educational practice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant P50CA143188

  NIH · $3.0M · 2014

• Optimized Chronic Care for Smokers: Developing and Implementing Integrated Clinical and Systems Interventions in Primary Care

  NIH · $46.0M · 2014–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Timothy B. Baker

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  46 shared

• Megan E. Piper

  39 shared

• Stevens S. Smith

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  39 shared

• Michael C. Fiore

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  36 shared

• Jessica W. Cook

  William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital

  24 shared

• Tanya R. Schlam

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  16 shared

• Douglas E. Jorenby

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  14 shared

• Robin J. Mermelstein

  Vanderbilt University

  14 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Educational Psychology

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2005

• M.S., Educational Psychology

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2002

• B.A., Psychology

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1999

Awards & honors

• President, Psychometric Society (2020, 2021)
• Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Educational and Behav…
• Kellett Mid-Career Award, University of Wisconsin, Madison (…
• Best Reviewer Award, Psychometrika (2016, 2018)
• Vilas Associates Award, University of Wisconsin, Madison (20…