Eric Duku

  • Senior Statistician/Health Research Methodologist, Offord Centre for Child Studies
  • Associate Professor (Part-Time), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences

Eric Duku is currently investigating the factors that challenge the measurement invariance of constructs used in comparative studies in early child development (ECD) research and ways to ensure that instruments used minimize bias as much as possible. This includes research into the measurement and statistical challenges associated with early child development research, determinants of healthy child development with emphasis on the factors that challenge the measurement invariance of constructs used in comparative studies in ECD research.He works with Magdalena Janus’ team coordinating annual data collections using the Early Development Instrument (EDI), performing the data analyses, supporting EDI-related projects in a number of countries around the world. Eric is also a Co-Investigator the Pathways in ASD study, a multi-site study to examine the developmental pathways of children with ASD and to identify the variables that influence these pathways. The Pathway study is in Phase III, following these children through the later years of primary schooling. . He is also a co-Investigator and a collaborator on other grants with members of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences.

Current Activities

  • Early Development Instrument- a reliable and valid measurement tool of developmental status completed on individual children at school entry in a holistic manner that comprises five major areas of child development.
  • Pathways in ASD - the largest longitudinal study in the world to examine the psycho-social factors in children with ASD

Publications

  • Tesfaye, R., Wright, N., Zaidman-Zait, A., Bedford, R., Zwaigenbaum, L., Kerns, C. M., Duku, E., Mirenda, P., Bennett, T., Georgiades, S., Smith, I. M., Vaillancourt, T., Pickles, A., Szatmari, P., & Elsabbagh, M. (2021). Investigating longitudinal associations between parent reported sleep in early childhood and teacher reported executive functioning in school-aged children with autism. Sleep. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsab122
  • Szatmari, P., Cost, K. T., Duku, E., Bennett, T., Elsabbagh, M., Georgiades, S.,  Kerns, C., Mirenda, P., Smith, I. M., Ungar, W. J., Vaillancourt, T., Waddell, C., Zaidman-Zait, A., & Zwaigenbaum, L. (2021). Association of Child and Family Attributes With Outcomes in Children With Autism. JAMA Network Open, 4(3), e212530-e212530. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.2530
  • Zwaigenbaum, L., Brian, J., Smith, I. M., Sacrey, L. R., Franchini, M., Bryson, S. E., Vaillancourt, T., Armstrong, V., Duku, E., Szatmari, P., Roberts, W., & Roncadin, C. (2021). Symptom trajectories in the first 18 months and autism risk in a prospective high-risk cohort. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13417
  • Georgiades, S., Tait, P. A., McNicholas, P. D., Duku, E., Zwaigenbaum, L., Smith, I. M., Bennett, T., Elsabbagh, M., Kerns, C. M., Mirenda, P., Ungar, W. J., Vaillancourt, T., Volden, J., Waddell, C., Zaidman-Zait, A., Gentles, S., & Szatmari, P. (2021). Trajectories of Symptom Severity in Children with Autism: Variability and Turning Points through the Transition to School. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-10. doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-04949-2
  • Cost, K. T., Zaidman-Zait, A., Mirenda, P., Duku, E., Zwaigenbaum, L., Smith, I. M., Ungar, W. J., Kerns, C., Bennett, T., Szatmari, P., Georgiades, S., Waddell, C., Elsabbagh, M., & Vaillancourt, T. (2021). “Best Things”: Parents Describe Their Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Over Time. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 1-15. doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-04890-4
  • Gagné, M., Guhn, M., Janus, M., Georgiades, K., Emerson, S. D., Milbrath, C., Duku, E., Magee, C., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Gadermann, A. M. (2020). Thriving, catching up, falling behind: Immigrant and refugee children’s kindergarten competencies and later academic achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology. doi: 10.1037/edu0000634
  • Siddiqua, A., Duku, E., Georgiades, K., Mesterman, R., & Janus, M. (2020). Association between neighbourhood socioeconomic status and developmental vulnerability of kindergarten children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A population level study. SSM-population health, 12, 100662. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100662
  • Niccols, A., Cunningham, C., Pettingill, P., Bohaychuk, D., & Duku, E. (2020). Preschool mental health: The Brief Child and Family Intake and Outcomes System. International Journal of Behavioral Development. doi: 10.1177/0165025420951248

For further publications click here.

Contact Eric

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Research Interests

  • Research methodology
  • Applied statistics
  • Latent variable modeling
  • Model-based classification

Education, Memberships & Certifications

  • P.Stat
  • Ph.D., University of Ottawa