Rebecca Collins is an adjunct senior behavioral scientist at RAND. Her research examines the determinants and consequences of health risk behavior. Much of her work has focused on media influences on health. She is currently studying the effectiveness of publicly-funded social marketing campaigns to reduce the stigma of mental illness and increase the use of appropriate well-being supports, including treatment seeking. She has previously studied longitudinal links between exposure to sexual content in media and adolescent sexual behavior and co-led a National Academy of Sciences panel examining the association between sexual content in media and child health. She also served on the American Psychological Association task force investigating the role of media and marketing in the sexualization of young girls. She has also studied links between exposure to alcohol advertising and youth drinking. Collins' work on military health includes studies of active duty service members' sexual and reproductive health. Prior research areas include substance use, living with HIV, LGBT health, social comparison, and the self-concept. Collins previously served as chair of RAND's Human Subjects Protection Committee and head of RAND's Health Promotion and Disease Prevention program. She holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from UCLA.
Ph.D., M.A. in social psychology, University of California, Los Angeles; B.S. in psychology, University of Wisconsin
