When I began my work in the alcohol field, I was motivated by the question of why some individuals consume alcohol as teens in a relatively normative fashion, but others go on to experience alcohol-related problems or develop alcohol dependence.  My research has been guided by a developmental framework, where I seek to understand not only how individuals differ from one another, but how individuals differ within themselves across the life course.

My training in social psychology has led me to explore the social and contextual factors underlying alcohol use, including parental influences, peer norms and affiliation with deviant peers, access to alcohol, the role of culture and the media, and the situational environment surrounding drinking.

My work also is motivated by the fact that most individuals do not use substances in isolation but often use multiple substances. My earlier research examined the underpinnings and consequences of alcohol-tobacco co-use; more recently, I have investigated the motivational and contextual influences on and consequences of simultaneous alcohol-cannabis use.

I am currently conducting research in the alcohol and cannabis fields, again under the overarching themes of social context and development.  I also have been, and continue to be, excited by methodological advances in longitudinal and fine-grained data analysis that allow me to test questions about mechanisms of influence and how they vary over time within a person.

See Research for my current research projects!