Faculty

Jennifer Maggs


Ph.D., University of Victoria, 1993

Professor of Human Development and Family Studies

Program Areas: Emerging Adulthood

Contact Information

S110 Henderson Building

Email

Phone: 814-865-2028
Fax: 814-863-7963

Department Web Page

Research Interests

Adolescent social development and health; transition to adulthood; risk behaviors; prevention science; research methods; alcohol expectancies

Recent Prevention Projects

Prevalence, Predictors, and Consequences of Alcohol Use from Childhood to Midlife

National Institutes of Health/NIAAA

Start Date: 2011

The project will provide new and needed knowledge about the prevalence and developmental antecedents of early adolescent alcohol use and attitudes favorable and unfavorable to use, as well as about the long-term consequences of heavy alcohol use and problems in early to middle adulthood. Based on a developmental epidemiological approach, the project combines the advantages of large-scale prospective representative longitudinal survey research with the strengths of cutting-edge longitudinal methods for estimating the determinants and consequences of alcohol use across the life course. The work will lead to better targeting of populations, age groups, and risk and protective factors in preventions aimed at delaying onset, reducing underage drinking, and reducing alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood.

University Life Study

National Institutes of Health

Start Date: 2006

The University Life Study is designed to examine links between motivations, daily activities, college experiences, and risk behaviors among university college students. Using web-based surveys, this study uses a measurement burst design to examine developmental changes and situational fluctuations in links between risks behaviors in different domains, as well as the extent to which such associations vary by intrapersonal (e.g., affect), interpersonal (e.g., relationship status), and environmental (e.g., holidays, sports events) predictors. Beginning in 2007, each semester from the fall of freshman to senior year, participants complete a longer developmental web-survey and a series of 14 consecutive days of web- surveys.

British Cohort Studies

National Institutes of Health

Start Date: 2009

Using the long-term longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study and the British Cohort Study 1970, we are examining consequences of heavy alcohol use during adolescence from adult status attainment, romantic relationship formation and dissolution, adult substance use and crime. Data for these NIAAA-funded secondary analyses began to be collected in 1958, and continue with the latest surveys at age 50 (NCDS) and age 38 (BCS) at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the University of London.

Recent Publications

Schulenberg, J., & Maggs, J. L. (2002). A developmental perspective on alcohol use and heavy drinking during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement No. 14: College drinking, what it is, and what to do about it: A review of the state of the science, 54–70.

Schulenberg, J., Maggs, J. L., & O’Malley, P. M. (2003). How and why the understanding of developmental continuity and discontinuity is important: The sample case of long-term consequences of adolescent substance use. In J. T. Mortimer & M. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 413–436). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Maggs, J. L., & Schulenberg, J. (2004–2005). Trajectories of alcohol use during the transition to adulthood. Alcohol Research and Health, 28, 195–201.

Brown, S., Mague, M., Maggs, J. L., Schulenberg, J., Hingson, R., Swartzwelder, S., Martin, C., Chung, T., Tapert, S. F., Sher, K., Winters, K. C., Lowman, C., Murphy, S. (2008). A developmental perspective on alcohol and youth ages 16-20. Pediatrics, 121 (Suppl. 14), S290–S310. See also same authors, Alcohol Research and Health, 32, 41–52.

Patrick, M. E., & Maggs, J. L. (2009). Does drinking lead to sex? Daily alcohol-sex behaviors and expectancies among college students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23, 472–481.

Patrick, M. E., Maggs, J. L., & Osgood, D. W. (2010). LateNight Penn State alcohol-free programming: Students drink less on days they participate. Prevention Science, 11, 155–162.

Staff, J., Schulenberg, J., Maslowsky, J., O’Malley, P. M., Maggs, J. L., & Johnston, L. D. (2010). Substance use changes and social role transitions: Proximal developmental effects on ongoing trajectories from late adolescence through early adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 919–934.

Maggs, J. L., Williams, L. R., & Lee, C. M. (2011). Ups and downs of alcohol use among first-year college students: Drinks per day, heavy drinking, and stumble and pass out drinking. Addictive Behaviors, 36, 197–202.

Patrick, M. E., Schulenberg, J. E., O'Malley, P. M., Maggs, J. L., Kloska, D. D., Johnston, L. D., & Bachman, J. G. (2011). Age-related changes in reasons for using alcohol and marijuana from ages 18 to 30 in a national sample. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 25(2), 330–339.

Galambos, N. L., Howard, A. L., & Maggs, J. L. (in press). Rise and fall of sleep quantity and quality with student experiences across the first year of university. Journal of Research on Adolescence.