Jason R Kilmer

• University of Washington

The current study examined age-varying patterns of cannabis use, cannabis-specific risk factors, and their associations across young adulthood. We used repeated cross-sectional data from young adults (N = 15,251; Mage = 22.02 years, SDage = 2.22; 68% female) who enrolled in the annual, statewide Washington Young Adult Health Survey between 2015 and...

Objective: This study investigated young adults’ (YAs) experiences with tolerance breaks (temporary abstinence from cannabis; T-breaks). Method: In Study 1, 15 YAs who used cannabis completed a qualitative interview. In Study 2, 66 YAs who used cannabis at least 2x/week completed online survey items assessing T-break familiarity, definitions, motiv...

Background Impaired driving behaviors among young adults who are under the influence of simultaneous alcohol and marijuana/cannabis (SAM) use are associated with increased risks of motor vehicle accidents and resulting increased injury and mortality. Exploration of associations with descriptive and injunctive norms may have prevention implications....

Objectives. To examine trends in young adult self-reported driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI-A), cannabis (DUI-C), and simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use (DUI-AC) in a state with legalized nonmedical cannabis use from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. We used logistic regression and annual statewide data from the Washing...

Objective: It is unknown whether age-related decreases in substance use (maturing out) are observed in the legalized cannabis context. This study evaluated age-related changes in past-month alcohol use frequency, cannabis use frequency, and any simultaneous alcohol and marijuana/cannabis (SAM) use among young adults who engaged in the respective s...

We aimed to identify interventions for college students’ harmful cannabis use in the United States (U.S.) and determine whether (and what type of) additional randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are needed. We conducted a scoping review of RCTs of individual-focused cannabis interventions for U.S. college students. Database searches yielded 13 RCTs—se...

In the alcohol research literature, many studies demonstrate the impact of advertisements, outlet density, and perceived norms on attitudes and behaviors. Now that Washington State has exceeded 11 years of legal cannabis for non-medical purposes, building upon the existing evidence base with alcohol, we can examine what contributes to perceived har...

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for young adults (YA) in the USA, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA), cannabis (DUIC), and simultaneous use of both substances (DUIAC) are prominent risk factors. Trends in YA impaired driving behaviors after opening of cannabis retail stores have been understudied. We examined YA tr...

Objective: Understanding transitions in nicotine and cannabis use has implications for prevention and efforts to reduce harmful use. Focusing on cross-substance associations, we examined how use of one substance was associated with year-to-year transitions in frequency of use of the other among young adults in the context of legalized nonmedical c...

Purpose: Alcohol- and cannabis-impaired driving behaviors remain a public health concern especially among young adults (i.e., ages 18-25). Limited updates to prevention efforts for these behaviors may be due, in part, to limited understanding of malleable psychosocial predictors. The current study assessed associations between perceived injunctive...

Background: Little is known about the prospective relationship between cannabis use and pain reliever misuse. This study examined associations of non-medical and medical cannabis use with onset of non-medical pain reliever misuse among young adults in Washington State (WA), where non-medical cannabis is legal. Methods: Data were from a cohort-se...

Background: Adolescent e-cigarette use has increased dramatically in recent years and is quickly becoming a serious public health issue. While studies have identified the influence of social norms on the use of traditional cigarettes, few have examined these factors in the context of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices. Objective: The goal of thi...

Objective: Single-component personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions and multicomponent personalized feedback interventions (PFI) have been shown to reduce alcohol consumption among college students. The present study compared the efficacy of PNF interventions targeting descriptive norms alone (descriptive PNF), injunctive norms alone (...

Childhood experiences are linked to myriad indices of health and wellbeing in adulthood, including substance use behaviors. Increasingly, there has been a paradigm shift in prevention science focused on healthy outcomes of positive experiences. The current study examined associations between retrospective reports of positive childhood experiences a...

Background Previous research has shown that a majority of adolescents in the United States initiate and drink alcohol prior to graduating high school and nearly twenty percent of high school seniors engage in heavy episodic drinking. Despite anecdotal evidence and media portrayals of alcohol use during high school events (e.g., prom), little is und...

Background Motor vehicle crashes remain a leading cause of death among young adults (ages 18–25) in the United States. Many drivers implicated in these crashes are under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, or the simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis. Extremely limited research has assessed impaired driving behaviors and their predictors at the...

Laws regarding cannabis are rapidly changing in the USA as more states legalize nonmedical cannabis for adults aged 21 and older. Previous research has examined whether legalization has led to an increase in cannabis use as well as the use of other substances. The current study examined changes in cannabis- and alcohol-specific risk factors followi...

Objective: Clinical trials assessing efficacy of alcohol use interventions often aim to test differences between treatment and control conditions at several follow-up time points, requiring repeated assessment of outcomes (e.g., weekly number of drinks). There has been concern that repeated assessment may elicit assessment reactivity in which part...

Purpose Liberalization of cannabis laws may be accompanied by changes in the use of substances other than cannabis and changes in associations of cannabis use with other types of substance use. This study assessed (1) trends in alcohol, nicotine, and nonprescribed pain reliever use and (2) changes in associations of cannabis use with these other su...

Objectives. To examine changes in prevalence of cannabis use and of cannabis use disorder symptomatology among young adults from 2014 to 2019 in Washington State, where nonmedical (or “recreational”) cannabis was legalized in 2012 and retail stores opened in July 2014. Methods. We used 6 years of cross-sectional data collected annually from 2014 (p...

Background This study examined associations of local cannabis retail outlet availability and neighborhood disadvantage with cannabis use and related risk factors among young adults. Methods Data were from annual cross-sectional surveys administered from 2015 to 2019 to individuals ages 18 to 25 residing in Washington State (N = 10,009). As outcome...

The first clinical trial of the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) was launched at the University of Washington in 1990. Since that time, multiple trials have demonstrated the efficacy of BASICS and related approaches in a variety of young adult populations and this information has been widely disseminated. Howev...

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...

Objective Nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NPS) continues to be a concern on college campuses. Previous research demonstrates a strong link between NPS and use of other substances, particularly alcohol and marijuana among college students. Simultaneous use of NPS with other substances has become an increasing concern. Given the high rates...

Study objectives: Simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use is increasingly prevalent among young adults but has adverse health consequences. The current study examined daily-level associations between perceived sleep health and SAM use, relative to non-substance-use days and alcohol- or marijuana-only days. We also estimated linear association...

Objective: The Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS; Dimeff et al., 1999) is an evidence-based approach to reduce high-risk drinking and associated harms; however, implementation may present challenges for community colleges (CCs) that have limited budgets and mostly non-residential students. We examined feasibility...

Young adult drinkers engage in a range of drinking patterns from abstaining to heavy drinking in both the United States and Sweden. Heavy drinking during young adulthood in both countries is associated with a variety of negative consequences. Personalized feedback interventions have been identified as effective prevention strategies to prevent or r...

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...

With widespread concern for increased alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a pressing need to examine changes in young adults’ alcohol use and to identify antecedents of increased use. We tested the hypothesis that self-reported changes in alcohol use during the pandemic (frequency, quantity, heavy episodic drinking) would relate to p...

This research evaluated the impact of the Positive Community Norms (PCN) approach on (a) correcting misperceptions of norms of peer alcohol use and (b) reducing prevalence of monthly alcohol use among a sample of high-school students. A 5-year intervention (consisting of a mix of strategies centered around promoting actual norms related to alcohol...

Measures assessing marijuana-related consequences or problems experienced by young adults have typically been adapted from measures assessing alcohol consequences. These measures may not fully reflect the specific unwanted or perceived “not so good” effects of marijuana that are experienced by young adults. Thus, using these measures may present a...

Background Alcohol and marijuana users often engage in simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use (i.e., using the 2 substances together so that their effects overlap), which can result in more negative consequences than using either substance alone. Nevertheless, little is known about SAM use among contemporary college students to aid in the dev...

Objectives The aim of this study is to evaluate how community college students with hazardous drinking perceived the usefulness of alcohol protective behavioral strategy text messages (TM-PBS). Methods Community college students with past hazardous single occasion or weekly drinking (N = 48; 60% female) were randomized to receive 2 TM-PBS on 3 typi...

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...

The College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM) is a user-friendly, interactive decision tool based on a synthesis of the substantial and growing literature on campus alcohol use prevention. It includes strategies targeted at both the individual and environmental levels. Commissioned by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (N...

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...

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...

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...

Background Marijuana policies are rapidly evolving. In the United States, recreational use of marijuana is now legal in 4 states and medical marijuana is legal in 23 states. Research evaluating such policies has focused primarily on how policies affect issues of price, access to, use, and consequences of marijuana. Due to potential spillover effect...

This chapter reviews the extant literature surrounding adolescent marijuana use and abuse. Other than alcohol, marijuana is the most prevalent psychoactive substance used by adolescents. While recent progress has been made in understanding and identifying risk and protective factors of adolescent marijuana use, as well as short and longer term outc...

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...

Prior studies with mandated students (students referred for an intervention following violation of a campus alcohol policy) have suggested that decreases in drinking behaviors may occur before clinical intervention. Others studies have suggested that greater reductions were associated with lower defensiveness and stronger incident reactions, such a...

Alcohol use is common among United States and Swedish high school students and is related to negative consequences. Whereas drinking intentions are associated with future drinking behaviors, the use of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) is associated with decreased alcohol-related harm among young adults. The interactive effect of PBS and drink...

Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of three single-session interventions with high-risk mandated students while considering the influence of motivational interviewing (MI) microskills. Method: This randomized, controlled pilot trial evaluated single-session interventions: Alcohol Skills Training Program (ASTP), Brief Alcohol Sc...

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...

Alcohol use among college students is linked to an increased likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors, including casual sex and unprotected sex. These behaviors increase college students' risks for negative social and health-related consequences. This study examined the relationship between drinking behaviors and protective behavioral strat...

Alcohol use among college students is prevalent and sometimes takes the form of drinking games, in which players are required to drink in accordance with a set of pre-defined rules. Drinking games are typically associated with elevated alcohol consumption and risk to the individual. This perspective piece considers the potential role of social anxi...

Alcohol consumption is prevalent among college students and can be associated with serious negative consequences. Several efficacious programs using one-on-one brief intervention techniques have been developed to target high-risk drinking by individual students, such as the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) (Dim...

The current web-based survey investigated the association between team or individual sport participation (or both) and self-reported alcohol and tobacco use among high school athletes (N=1, 275) transitioning to college. Peak Blood Alcohol Concentration, weekly drinking, and alcohol-related problems were significantly lower among athletes in indivi...

Objective: College student drinking is not a new phenomenon, yet the field of research studying college student drinking is relatively young. In recognition of the 75th anniversary of what is now the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, this article reviews the path from the first article to focus exclusively on college student drinking as 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...

Objectives: Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are generally effective at correcting normative misperceptions and reducing risky alcohol consumption among college students. However, research has yet to establish what level of reference group specificity is most efficacious in delivering PNF. This study compared the efficacy of a w...

Objective: Marijuana is the most frequently reported illicit substance used on college campuses. Despite the prevalence, few published intervention studies have focused specifically on addressing high-risk marijuana use on college campuses. The present study evaluated the efficacy of an in-person brief motivational enhancement intervention for red...

Introduction: Marijuana is the most frequently reported illicit substance used on college campuses; however few published intervention studies have focused specifically on addressing high-risk marijuana use in this college or university setting. Marijuana use is associated with both short-and long-term consequences, including poor academic performa...

Objective: This study extends previous examinations of social influences and marijuana use in considering how heavy marijuana users view themselves relative to their peers. We were specifically interested in evaluating whether (a) heavy-using marijuana users would identify more strongly with other users than with typical students, (b) identificati...

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...

In this article, we discuss Alan Marlatt's contributions to the prevention and reduction of alcohol-related harms among college students. We consider Alan's early research that later led to the development and evaluation of college student drinking programs, and examine Alan's impact, both directly and indirectly through those he mentored and train...

It is common for people to report strong preferences for certain types of alcohol, often as a function of past positive or negative experiences with particular types of drinks. Despite this individual difference, implicit measures related to alcohol frequently use nomothetic approaches--i.e., use a standard set of alcohol beverage stimuli--which ma...

AlcoholRecreational DrugsErgogenic DrugsPrevention and Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Problems Among AthletesConclusion

Perceived descriptive drinking norms often differ from actual norms and are positively related to personal consumption. However, it is not clear how normative perceptions vary with specificity of the reference group. Are drinking norms more accurate and more closely related to drinking behavior as reference group specificity increases? Do these rel...

Prior research has shown that normative perceptions of others' drinking behavior strongly relates to one's own drinking behavior. Most research examining the perceived drinking of others has generally focused on specificity of the normative referent (i.e., gender, ethnicity). The present study expands the research literature on social norms by exam...

The present study examined factors associated with engaging in oral and vaginal sex and condom use during the most recent hookup, a term that refers to a range of physically intimate behaviors outside of a committed relationship, among college students. In addition, this research aimed to evaluate factors associated with experiencing positive and n...

This study explored secondary effects of a multisite randomized alcohol prevention trial on tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drug use among a sample of incoming college students who participated in high school athletics. Students (n = 1,275) completed a series of Web-administered measures at baseline during the summer before starting college a...

The efficacy of the Alcohol Skills Training Program (ASTP; Miller, et al., 2000) was evaluated in 204 heavy-drinking college students randomly assigned to either ASTP (n=119) or an assessment-only control (n=85) condition. The volunteer ASTP sample (n=119) was also compared to a sample of students mandated to ASTP following a first-time sanction (n...

College athletes are an at-risk population for excessive alcohol use and subsequent alcohol-related harms. The purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of an electronically delivered personalized drinking feedback (PDF) intervention targeted specifically to college athletes, both in comparison with a standard (i.e., nontargeted) PDF intervent...

Previous research has shown that social norms are among the strongest predictors of college student drinking. Among college students, perceiving that others drink more heavily than themselves has been strongly and consistently associated with heavier drinking. Research has also shown that the more specifically others are defined, the stronger the 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...

Alcohol use has been implicated as a risk factor for sexual negative consequences, such as unprotected sexual intercourse. The present research was conducted to examine the relationship between drinking protective behavioral strategies and consensual sex-related alcohol negative consequences, and whether this relationship varied by gender. Addition...

Despite clear need, brief web-based interventions for marijuana-using college students have not been evaluated in the literature. The current study was designed to evaluate a brief, web-based personalized feedback intervention for at-risk marijuana users transitioning to college. All entering first-year students were invited to complete a brief que...

The present study examined the relationship between alcohol use and positive psychology's character virtues1 in a college student sample. Each of the virtues of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence were examined as protective factors and moderators of drinking consequences. This sample included 425 undergraduate student...

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...

Prepartying among college students is an emerging topic of research and clinical focus. Unfortunately for some students, prepartying, or quick drinking before going out for the primary event of the evening, can lead to high blood alcohol levels, further drinking, and subsequent consequences. The present study was designed to explore the reasons for...

This study examined the effectiveness of three peer-facilitated brief alcohol interventions-small group motivational interviewing, motivationally enhanced peer theater, and an interactive alcohol-education program-with students engaging in high-risk drinking who were referred for alcohol policy violations. Undergraduate students referred for alcoho...

Research has found perceived descriptive norms to be one of the strongest predictors of college student drinking, and several intervention approaches have incorporated normative feedback to correct misperceptions of peer drinking behavior. Little research has focused on the role of the reference group in normative perceptions. The current study sou...

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...

The present study evaluates differences in risk perception related to marijuana use as a function of past use and, among those who report marijuana use, as a function of frequency of use and having experienced a consequence in the past. Participants were 725 incoming first year college students in a longitudinal study examining the efficacy of a ma...

The present study used perspectives from the general literature on college alcohol consumption to examine mediational influences of peer, environmental, and parental variables on heavy drinking for student athlete and nonathlete samples. Eight hundred thirty-five freshmen who differed in organized sports involvement were compared on heavy drinking...

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...

The authors used social marketing to design and test advertisement components aimed at increasing students' interest in attending an alcohol program focused on reaching students who drink heavily, although the authors offered no such program. Participants were undergraduate students in introductory psychology courses (N = 551). Questionnaires inclu...

This study investigates the relationship between marijuana use, perceived norms of use by friends and students in general, and negative experiences or problems from alcohol and drug use. It was hypothesized that students would overestimate the marijuana use of students in general and that perceptions about the prevalence of marijuana use would be r...

The current paper highlights the college years as a risk period for development, continuation, and escalation of illicit substance use and substance use disorders and reviews the literature related to the prevention and treatment of these disorders in college populations. Despite widespread implementation of college drug prevention programs, a revi...

It is well established that college students have high rates of alcohol use and misuse and suffer the negative consequences of this behavior. Research evaluating the results of brief interventions with high-risk college students has shown these approaches to be successful in reducing alcohol consumption and/or related consequences. Several screenin...

The present study is an evaluation of a policy restricting access to alcohol for Greek System members. A cross-sectional comparison of drinking rates and attitudes toward the policy used 994 participants at the implementation of the policy and 1,051 participants 1 year after implementation. Results indicated that drinking per occasion was greater f...

The present study is an evaluation of a policy restricting access to alcohol for Greek System members. A cross-sectional comparison of drinking rates and attitudes toward the policy used 994 participants at the implementation of the policy and 1,051 participants 1 year after implementation. Results indicated that drinking per occasion was greater f...

This article examines the three recommendations made by Bickel, Madden, and Perry (1998) for drug-abuse treatment: (a) adopting methods to decrease drug availability, (b) increasing the availability of substitutable nondrug activities, and (c) using treatment methods that will increase the extent to which delayed rewards control the behavior of sub...

Participants were 376 members of Greek fraternity houses (157 men, 219 women) with reputations for high, average, and low drinking. The average participant was 19.75 years in age, and 88% of the sample was Caucasian. Participants were compared on measures of perceived house reputation (Organizational Perceptions Questiionnaire), acceptability of hi...