Eric R. Pedersen

Photo of Eric Pedersen
Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist
Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in clinical psychology, University of Washington

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Eric R. Pedersen is a senior 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 recently discharged 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 using internet-based methods to help reduce alcohol misuse and promote treatment engagement among non-treatment-seeking young adults. 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 is currently examining how cannabis use among young adults has changed during the time of recreational legalization. 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 Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Washington.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

  • Online Intervention to Prevent Risky Behaviors During College Student Study Abroad Experiences
  • Associations of Exposure to Marijuana Outlets and Advertising with Marijuana Use Outcomes among Young Adults
  • Mobile Application Intervention Targeting the High Risk Drinking Practice of Prepartying
  • Brief Online Intervention to Reduce Heavy Alcohol Use Among Young Adult Veterans
  • Project ALERT Drug Prevention

Selected Publications

Gutner, C. A., Pedersen, E. R., & Drummond, S. P. , "Going direct to the consumer: Examining treatment preferences for veterans with insomnia, PTSD, and depression," Psychiatry Research, 263, 2018

Grant, S., Spears, A., & Pedersen, E. R., "Video game playing among young adult veterans: An exploratory analysis of video games as a potential modality for behavioral health services," JMIR Serious Games, 6, 2018

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., 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

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., 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., 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

Commentary

Publications