Irene Markman Geisner

• University of Washington

Objective: It is critical to gain further understanding of etiologic factors, such as descriptive normative perceptions and behavioral willingness, that are associated with prescription stimulant misuse (PSM) among young adults. Our primary hypotheses were that descriptive normative perceptions for PSM (i.e., perceptions of how much and how often o...

Student drinking during the college years can result in many adverse outcomes. Emotion-based decision-making (EBDM), or the use of emotional information to influence future plans and behavior, may lead to increased harmful consequences of alcohol. The current study examined both the number of types and total frequency of alcohol consequences as a f...

Background Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMPS) has increased on college campuses during the past two decades. NMPS is primarily driven by academic enhancement motives, and normative misperceptions exist as well. However, large, nationwide studies have not yet been conducted to generalize findings more broadly and gain a deeper understa...

Background Studies have shown that parents have a significant influence on emerging adult college students’ drinking during the first year of college. Limited research has been conducted to address the question of whether parenting later in college continues to matter in a similar manner. The current study utilized a prospective design to identify...

Objective: College student alcohol use remains a considerable concern. While many colleges provide universal interventions surrounding matriculation, trends indicate alcohol use increases over the college years. This study utilized a person-centered approach to examine changes in drinking across college and predictors (expectancies, attitudes, nor...

Background: The comorbidity of depressed mood and college student drinking causes consequences for both the individual and society. Aspects of parenting have been shown to be important for college students' well-being. While some interventions are beginning to address this population, few studies have examined how parental monitoring impacts the r...

Protective behavioural strategies (PBS) for drinking are behaviours that individuals engage in to reduce the amount they drink and drinking-related consequences. To date, little is known about associations that PBS might have with other risky behaviours that frequently coincide with drinking, such as gambling. The goal of this study was to examine...

Protective behavioural strategies (PBS) for drinking are behaviours that individuals engage in to reduce the amount they drink and drinking-related consequences. To date, little is known about associations that PBS might have with other risky behaviours that frequently coincide with drinking, such as gambling. The goal of this study was to examine...

Introduction: Research has identified college students who experience depressed mood and consume alcohol are at an increased risk for experiencing alcohol problems. The present study identified profiles of differential alcohol use, depression, key psychosocial indicators of drinking (e.g., normative perceptions) and examined the relationship betwe...

Background: The transition from college to work is both an exciting and potentially high risk time for young adults. As students transition from academic settings to full-time employment, they must navigate new social demands, work demands, and adjust their drinking behaviors accordingly. Research has shown that there are both protective factors a...

Although scholars have extensively studied the impact of academic and vocational factors on college students’ employment upon graduation, we still know little as to how students’ health-related behaviors influence such outcomes. Focusing on student alcohol use as a widely prevalent, health-related behavior, the current study examines the employment...

Introduction: College students are at higher than average risk for nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS). A commonly identified motive among students who engage in NPS is to improve grades. Several research studies have observed that NPS most likely does not confer an academic advantage, and is associated with excessive drinking and othe...

Alcohol expectancies are a central construct in understanding college student typical alcohol use. However, to our knowledge, there is no research addressing how alcohol expectancies for specific events (i.e. 21st birthday) are different from expectancies regarding typical drinking. We examine the extent to which 21st birthday alcohol expectancies...

The purpose of the present paper was to examine the extent to which college students underestimate the quantity of alcohol they will consume during Spring Break (SB), and whether individual, interpersonal, and contextual factors may be related to underestimation of SB drinking and drinking consequences. College students participated in web-based su...

Both gambling and stimulant use are common and can lead to problems on college campuses with consequences that impact the financial, emotional, academic and physical well-being of students. Yet few studies have been conducted to understand the co-occurrence of these conditions and the increased risk factors if any that may exist for gambling and re...

Objective: There has been ample research on college student risks and consequences related to 21st Birthday Drinking. To date, no studies we are aware of have examined how 21st birthday drinking impacts subsequent drinking and related consequences. This study evaluates the effect of a single night of drinking on peak drinking, heavy drinking, and...

Introduction: Many college students engage in nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS) because they believe it provides academic benefits, but studies are lacking to support or refute this belief. Methods: Using a longitudinal design, 898 undergraduates who did not have an ADHD diagnosis were studied. Year 3 GPA (from college records) of...

College is a time of high risk for depressed mood. Theories about depression (i.e. Cognitive Theory and Depressive Realism theory) are well researched, but suggest different venues of understanding the cognitive underpinnings of mood. In addition, much research is available about normative perceptions around substance use and how those perceptions...

The number and proportion of foreign-born individuals in the U.)S. population has increased in recent decades. From 1970 to 2007, the foreign-born population more than tripled to approximately 37 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 1997 , 2008 ). Foreign-born students are a key subpopulation of college students. About 23% of U.S. undergraduate college stu...

The present study examined associations between use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) by college students and their friends and drinking-related outcomes during Spring Break (SB). Moreover, this study examined the influence of friends' own PBS use on participants' PBS use during SB. Participants included college students (N=694) and their n...

Research has documented normative perceptions of others' alcohol use and how these related to increased rates of drinking and related problems among college students. Recently, research has expanded this concept to specific events (21st birthday drinking and tailgating). No studies to date examine the construct of normative perceptions of alcohol u...

Approximately 10% of US college students are engaged in non-medical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) and that use is linked to concerning health, educational, and societal consequences. Few studies have assessed normative perceptions surrounding NMUPS. Accordingly, we examined self-reported use and normative perceptions for NMUPS and demograp...

College is a time of increased risk for problematic alcohol use and depressed mood. The comorbidity of these conditions is well documented, but is less well understood, with few interventions designed to prevent or reduce the related consequences. The current study evaluated a web-based personalized intervention for students (N=311) who reported an...

Disordered gambling has been linked to increased negative affect, and some promising treatments have been shown to be effective at reducing gambling behaviors and related problems (Larimer et al. in Addiction 107:1148-1158, 2012). The current study seeks to expand upon the findings of Larimer et al. (Addiction 107:1148-1158, 2012) by examining the...

Objective: Although recent studies have documented high-risk drinking occurring during Spring Break (SB), particularly on SB trips with friends, published intervention studies are few. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of event specific prevention strategies for reducing SB drinking among college students, compared to general prevent...

Research suggests men have become increasingly concerned about their bodies with respect to both thinness and muscularity, and these concerns are associated with behavioral and psychological consequences that differ from women. The current study evaluated depressed mood as a moderator of associations between drives for thinness and muscularity and...

Introduction: College student drinking and related problems have received much attention in the past 20 years with several effective prevention and intervention approaches developed to reduce harmful consequences. Despite great advances, there are known events where young adults are at high risk for excessive alcohol use and negative consequences,...

Introduction: There is growing support for the utility and efficacy of interventions targeting college student risky drinking and related consequences, particularly during predictably high risk drinking occasions such as 21st birthday celebrations and Spring Break (SB). Given that interventions tend to focus mainly on drinking outcomes, little is k...

Objective: While research has documented heavy drinking practices and associated negative consequences of college students turning 21, few studies have examined prevention efforts aimed at reducing high-risk drinking during 21st birthday celebrations. The present study evaluated the comparative efficacy of a general prevention effort (i.e., Brief...

Depression and alcohol use are often found in college students, particularly during their first year. The current study assessed the interrelationship of alcohol use and specific depression symptoms. A large sample (n = 869) of first year students were invited to participate via the Internet. Results indicated that specific depression symptoms corr...

Background: High school students involved in athletics may face additional stressors and engage in more problematic behaviors such as drinking, dieting, and gambling than non-athletes, especially as they near the end of their high school experience. Studies have in general found mixed results as to whether sports serve a protective factor or are a...

This study examined a range of injunctive norms for alcohol use and related consequences from less severe behaviors (e.g., drinking with friends) to more severe behaviors (e.g., drinking enough alcohol to pass out), and their relationship with alcohol consumption and alcohol-related negative consequences among college students. In addition, this re...

Social norms for alcohol use are important influences on individual college student drinking. The present study extends social norms research by examining alcohol-related consequences and, in particular, whether similar misperceptions exist regarding the frequency and evaluation of these consequences over time. College student drinkers (N = 624) pa...

The current study is a multisite randomized alcohol prevention trial to evaluate the efficacy of both a parenting handbook intervention and the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) intervention, alone and in combination, in reducing alcohol use and consequences among a high-risk population of matriculating college...

College student-athletes are at risk for heavy alcohol consumption and related consequences. The present study evaluated the influence of college student and college athlete descriptive norms and levels of athletic identity on drinking and related consequences among incoming college students attending two universities (N=1119). Prior to the beginni...

This research examined the relationships among perceived social norms, social outcome expectancies, and marijuana use and related consequences among entering college freshman marijuana users. Students (N = 312, 55% female) completed online assessments of their marijuana use, related consequences, perceived norms, and social expectancies related to...

This research evaluated a brief mailed intervention for alcohol use as an adjunct to a brief treatment for college students with depression symptoms. The intervention aimed to correct normative misperceptions and reduce students' drinking and related consequences. One hundred seventy seven college students (70% Female) with elevated scores on the B...

Social norms are a key determinant of young adult drinking, yet little research has evaluated potential interactive effects among different types of norms. The present research was designed to evaluate perceptions of friends' approval of drinking (i.e., injunctive norms) as a moderator of the relationship between perceived prevalence of friends' dr...

The current study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a mailed feedback and tips intervention as a universal prevention strategy for college drinking. Participants (N = 1,488) were randomly assigned to feedback or assessment-only control conditions. Results indicated that the mailed feedback intervention had a preventive effect on drinking rat...

Studies indicate greater heavy episodic drinking and related consequences for college student-athletes compared with nonathletes. Surprisingly, little research has examined college athletes' participation in drinking games, a context associated with excessive alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences in college students. We exam...

This research evaluated the efficacy of a brief, mailed personalized feedback intervention designed to alleviate depressed mood and antecedents (ineffective coping and hopelessness). College students (N = 177) were randomly assigned to intervention or control group following a baseline assessment. A week after completing the baseline assessment, pa...

The authors examined the relation between Greek students' perceptions of alcohol consumption in their pledge classes (descriptive norms) and acceptability of drinking (injunctive norms) and the ability of these normative influences to predict drinking behavior, alcohol-related negative consequences, and symptoms of alcohol dependence concurrently a...

This research evaluated the prevalence of general symptoms of psychological distress, the degree to which these symptoms related to alcohol use and alcohol-related negative consequences, and gender-specific relationships among alcohol use, alcohol consequences, and symptoms of psychological distress. The sample included 1705 students drawn from a r...

This article presents an examination of college student drinking motives from a self-determination perspective. We predicted positive associations between controlled orientation (a chronic orientation toward pressures and experiencing a lack of choice in one's behaviors), and drinking as a means of regulating affect (enhancement and coping motives)...

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium, chaired by Peter Monti and cochaired by Tracy O'Leary, that was presented at the 2001 RSA Meeting in Montreal, Quebec. The aim of this symposium was to present data on group- and individual-based interventions for adolescent alcohol and substance abuse, with a discussion of the implications of...

A brief and inexpensive cognitive–behavioral prevention program was given to university students at risk for depression. At risk was defined as being in the most pessimistic quarter of explanatory style. Two hundred thirty-one students were randomized into either an 8-week prevention workshop that met in groups of 10, once per week for 2 hr, or int...

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Washington, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 25-30).