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Eric R. Pedersen

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Behavioral and Social Scientist
Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in clinical psychology, University of Washington

Media Resources

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Overview

Eric R. Pedersen is a behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation. His research interests are primarily in areas of young adult/adolescent alcohol use and comorbid mental health disorders. Pedersen has received funding to develop brief, online interventions to reduce alcohol misuse among young adult populations such as college students and recent veterans. He is interested in finding ways to target comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders among active duty and young adult veterans, as well as in reducing alcohol misuse and promoting treatment engagement among non-treatment-seeking young adults using Internet-based methods. He is also serving as the director of Project ALERT, which is a school-based drug prevention program for middle school youth developed at RAND. Pedersen trained at the VA San Diego, where he focused on rotations in empirically supported interventions for PTSD and dual diagnoses (i.e., comorbid substance abuse and mental health disorders). Pedersen earned his Doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

  • Brief Online Intervention to Reduce Heavy Alcohol Use Among Young Adult Veterans
  • Project ALERT Drug Prevention
  • Engaging Substance Using Homeless Youth in Drop-in Center Services
  • AOD Use Trajectories from Age 10 to 24: Multi-level Predictors, Health and Behavioral Functioning, and Racial/ethnic Disparities
  • Online Intervention to Prevent Risky Behaviors During College Student Study Abroad Experiences

Selected Publications

Pedersen, E. R., Eberhart, N. K., Williams, K. M., Tanielian, T., Epley, C., & Scharf, D. M., Public-Private Partnerships for Providing Behavioral Health Care to Veterans and Their Families: What Do We Know, What Do We Need to Learn, and What Do We Need to Do, RAND Corporation (RR-994-NYSHF/MTF), 2015

Pedersen, E. R., Neighbors, C., Atkins, D. C., Lee, C. M., & Larimer, M. E., "Brief online interventions targeting risk and protective factors for increased and problematic alcohol use among American college students studying abroad," Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31, 2017

Pedersen, E.R., Parast, L., Marshall, G. N., Schell, T. L., & Neighbors, C., "A randomized controlled trial of a web-based personalized normative feedback alcohol intervention for young adult veterans," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85, 2017

Pedersen, E. R., "Using the solid research base on pregaming to begin intervention development: An epilogue to the special issue on college pregaming," Substance Use and Misuse, 51, 2016

Pedersen, E. R., Troxel, W. M., Shih, R. A., Pinder, E., Lee, D., & Geyer, L., "Increasing resilience through promotion of healthy sleep among service members," Military Medicine, 180, 2015

Pedersen, E.R., Helmuth, E. D., Marshall, G. N., Schell, T. L., PunKay, M., & Kurz, J., "Using Facebook to recruit young adult veterans: Online mental health research," JMIR Research Protocols, 4(2), 2015

Pedersen, E. R., Miles, J. N. V., Ewing, B. A., Shih, R. A., Tucker, J. S., & D’Amico, E. J., "A longitudinal examination of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette perceived norms among middle school adolescents," Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 133, 2013

Pedersen, E. R., Huang, W., Dvorak, R. D., Prince, M., Hummer, J. F., & Marijuana Outcomes Study Team., "The Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana Scale: Further examination using Item Response Theory," Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31, 2017

Commentary

Publications