
Jennifer M WhitehillUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst | UMass Amherst · Department of Health Promotion and Policy
Jennifer M Whitehill
PhD; Health Policy and Management
About
43
Publications
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (43)
Purpose:
Cannabis use during adolescence can have harmful consequences, including poor educational outcomes, neurocognitive defects, and an increased risk of addiction to other drugs, such as tobacco, alcohol, and opioids. Perceived family and social network cannabis use is a risk factor for use among adolescents. It is not currently known whether...
Objective:
The increasing number of states legalizing recreational cannabis use have raised growing concerns about exposure and access to cannabis for youth. The objective of this study was to develop an adolescent stakeholder-driven Concept Map towards identifying priority areas for preventing youth cannabis marketing influence.
Methods:
This s...
This review examines the challenges of measuring the effect of acute cannabis use as it relates to injury risk. This is relevant for researchers, particularly those studying drug-impaired driving, and practitioners such as those measuring impairment in workplaces or at the roadside. Emerging research clarifies the challenges of linking drug levels...
Latent class analysis (LCA) identified subtypes of cannabis marketing exposure among adolescents and assessed whether the classes were associated with three cannabis use outcomes: past 28-day use, poly-cannabis use, and symptoms of cannabis use disorder (CUD). Survey data were from 471 adolescents (aged 15–19 years) who lived in four states with le...
Objective:
Marketing messages can influence adolescents' attitudes and behaviors toward alcohol and tobacco. In the era of legalized cannabis use, retail cannabis companies often use social media marketing on platforms popular among youth. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adherence to state-based regulations for restricted and required co...
Objective
Existing administrative and survey data are critical for understanding the effects of exigent policies on population health outcomes related to opioid, cannabis, and other substance use disorders (SUDs). The objective of this study was to determine the state of the data available for evaluating SUD-related health outcomes.
Methods
We per...
Background:
In recent years, use of the herbal supplement kratom has increased in the United States. The reasons for use include pain relief, particularly as a substitute for opioids.
Objectives:
To describe epidemiologic trends in kratom-related exposures among older adults reported to U.S. poison centers.
Design:
Retrospective analysis of Am...
This cross-sectional study examines reports of cannabis exposure at US poison control centers for trends in patient and product characteristics, stratified by manufactured cannabis products and plant materials.
In the U.S., death by suicide is a leading cause of death and was the 2nd leading cause of death for ages 15-to-34 in 2018. Though incomplete, much of the scientific literature has found associations between cannabis use and death by suicide. Eleven states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for general adult use. We sought to eval...
Objective:
Health consequences of commercializing nonmedical cannabis remain unclear, but data suggest that youth may encounter unintended risks. This study examined whether cannabis marketing exposure and engagement are associated with problematic cannabis use among adolescents.
Method:
The analytic sample included 172 lifetime cannabis users (...
Objective: We determined the prevalence and correlates of cannabis use in Massachusetts after recreational use was passed, but before recreational cannabis stores opened.
Method: A cross-sectional, population-based survey of Massachusetts adults, age 18 years or older, (n=3,022) was conducted in November–December, 2017. We estimated population-lev...
Importance
In response to increasing public support for cannabis legalization, understanding associations of state and federal policy changes related to cannabis legalization with patterns of cannabis use is important. A challenge for public health monitoring and research is significant variation in data availability related to cannabis use behavio...
Purpose:
The objective of this study was to examine adolescents' self-reported exposure to cannabis marketing in states with legalized cannabis and its association with past-year cannabis use.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional, online panel survey of 469 adolescents aged 15-19 years residing in four states with legal retail cannabis for ad...
Methods:
Data are from an online survey of 482 adolescents (aged 15-19 years) living in states with legalized retail cannabis. Youth were asked about their engagement with cannabis promotions, including whether they liked/followed cannabis businesses on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), had a favorite cannabis brand, or could see th...
Importance
Pediatric health care contacts due to cannabis exposure increased in Colorado and Washington State after cannabis (marijuana) policies became more liberal, but evidence from other US states is limited.
Objective
To document the incidence of pediatric cannabis exposure cases reported to the Regional Center for Poison Control and Preventi...
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to describe associations between employment and marijuana use among adolescents 2 years before passage of 2012 ballot initiative and 2 years after the implementation of retail recreational marijuana sales took place in Washington.
Methods
We used 2010 and 2016 data from Washington's statewide school-based Healt...
Objective:
To examine the use of transportation networking companies (TNCs) (eg, Uber) among substance-using students in rural and urban college settings.
Participants:
Students at two large state universities were randomly selected and screened for substance use. Participants reported use of TNCs generally and after substance use and whether TN...
Driving (DUIM) and riding (RUIM) with a driver under the influence of marijuana increases crash risk. This study assessed risk factors for DUIM and RUIM among ethnically diverse young adults. Randomly selected individuals were surveyed. Multivariable regression was used to assess risk factors associated with DUIM and RUIM. Participants (N = 335, re...
Purpose
Problematic alcohol use is an important risk factor for injury. Smartphones introduce new possibilities for increasing or decreasing that risk. Many alcohol-related smartphone apps exist. This study systematically reviewed alcohol-related apps available in the U.S. app market, described the purpose of these apps and assessed their potential...
Objectives:
Previous research suggests that anticipation of incoming phone calls or messages and impulsivity are significantly associated with motor vehicle crash. We took a more explanative approach to investigate a conceptual model regarding the direct and indirect effect of compulsive cell phone use and impulsive personality traits on crash ris...
Background:
Reducing the incidence and negative consequences of concussion among youth athletes is a public health priority. In 2010, Massachusetts passed legislation aimed at addressing the issue of concussions in school athletics. We sought to understand local-level implementation decisions of the Massachusetts concussion law.
Methods:
A quali...
Alcohol content is frequently displayed on social media through both user-generated posts and advertisements. Previous work supports that alcohol content on social media is influential and often associated with offline behaviors for adolescents and young adults. Social media may have a role in future alcohol intervention efforts including identifyi...
Social media and mobile applications (apps) are popular among and frequently used by adolescents and young adults. These digital platforms allow access to content that is influential regarding substance use. Previous research on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have described best practices in social media research, documented the pr...
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to understand college students' 1) views and experiences regarding marijuana, 2) voting behaviors, and 3) early perceptions of the impact of legislation.
College students from Washington and Wisconsin were interviewed between May-September 2013.
Participants completed phone interviews assessing marijuana...
This study assessed marijuana-related content posted by adolescents on Twitter and examined content variation before and after the 2012 U.S. election legalizing recreational use in two states. For two 3-week periods occurring 6 months before and after the election, a 1% random sample was obtained of all tweets matching a set of marijuana-related qu...
Emerging adults have high rates of heavy episodic drinking (binge drinking) and related risks including alcohol-impaired driving. To understand whether social networking sites (SNSs) used on mobile devices represent a viable platform for real-time interventions, this study measured emerging adults' use of two popular SNSs (Facebook and Twitter) dur...
Participation in online social media Web sites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) has skyrocketed in recent years and created a new environment in which adolescents and young adults may be exposed to and influenced by alcohol-related content. Thus, young people are exposed to and display pro-alcohol messages and images through online portrayals of drinki...
Importance
Driving after marijuana use increases the risk of a motor vehicle crash. Understanding this behavior among young drivers and how it may differ from alcohol-related driving behaviors could inform prevention efforts.Objective
To describe the prevalence, sex differences, and risk factors associated with underage college students’ driving...
The Mifflin Street Block Party is a yearly Wisconsin event known for high levels of alcohol consumption and previous negative outcomes. This study investigated displayed Mifflin references on Facebook and their association with alcohol consumption at the block party.
Participants included first-year college students who were enrolled in a longitudi...
Few studies have examined the psychological factors underlying the association between cell phone use and motor vehicle crash. We sought to examine the factor structure and convergent validity of a measure of problematic cell phone use, and to explore whether compulsive cell phone use is associated with a history of motor vehicle crash.
We recruite...
Abstract Facebook is a popular social media Web site that has been hypothesized to exert potential influence over users' attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual framework to explain influential aspects of Facebook. This mixed methods study applied concept mapping methodology, a validated five-step...
Objectives:
To evaluate the incidence of snow-sports-related head injuries among children and adolescents reported to emergency departments (EDs), and to examine the trend from 1996 to 2010 in ED visits for snow-sports-related traumatic brain injury (TBI) among children and adolescents.
Methods:
A retrospective, population-based cohort study was...
Cities are increasingly adopting CeaseFire, an evidence-based public health program that uses specialized outreach workers, called violence interrupters (VIs), to mediate potentially violent conflicts before they lead to a shooting. Prior research has linked conflict mediation with program-related reductions in homicides, but the specific conflict...
To determine acceptability, preferred communication medium, and other key considerations for intervention by friends, professors or resident advisors, and strangers in response to college students' references to depression on the social networking site Facebook.
Facebook profiles belonging to 18- to 19-year-old students (n = 60) at a large public u...
Background/Purpose: Young adults have high rates of binge drinking and alcohol-related crashes. They are also frequent users of social networking sites (SNS) which could provide new resources for safe transportation when drinking. This study measured use of the most popular SNS (Facebook and Twitter) during drinking, whether SNS use varies by drink...
The Internet began as an environment in which large corporations distributed text-based information to the masses. Technological advancements led to the rise of Internet 2.0, which featured new tools such as blogs and social networking sites and allowed the average user near-instantaneous sharing of text, images, audio, and video with peers and the...
Chicago's CeaseFire program is an evidence-based public health approach to preventing gun violence. Baltimore is one of many US cities attempting to replicate the program. We compared changes in the number of homicide and nonfatal shooting incidents per month in four intervention neighborhoods with changes in high-crime comparison areas (police pos...
Background:
Mediation of potentially violent conflicts is a key component of CeaseFire, an effective gun violence-prevention programme.
Objective:
To describe conflicts mediated by outreach workers (OW) in Baltimore's CeaseFire replication, examine neighbourhood variation, and measure associations between conflict risk factors and successful non...
The United Teen Equality Center in Lowell, Massachusetts uses Street Outreach Workers (SWs) to intervene with individuals 13-23 years old who are involved in high risk behaviors or in need of assistance. Few studies have explored the perceptions of SWs by their target population (both individuals they have worked with and those who they have not ye...