The Adolescent Health Promotion Lab is overseen by Dr. Elizabeth Weybright, and includes undergraduate Human Development and graduate Prevention Science students. Recognizing adolescence as a critical period of biological, cognitive, and social development, we seek to promote health and prevention risk behavior within out of school time contexts. Using a prevention science framework we work to identify what contributes to healthy adolescent development and use this information to develop and/or refine preventive interventions that promote the health of adolescents and emerging adults.
Recent News
January 2024
New publications out on rural behavioral health partners and needs as well as approaches to recruiting rural adolescents! See brief descriptions and article links below.
The first publication advocates for a Health Extension approach, in partnership with Cooperative Extension, to more effectively address behavioral health in rural communities.
- Weybright, E., Doering, E. L., Hampilos, K., Roll, J., Barbosa-Leiker, C., & McDonell, M. (2024). Cooperative Extension as a key partner to behavioral health in rural communities [Special Issue]. Journal of Rural Mental Health. Advance online publication.
- View a brief report outlining the proposed Health Extension approach (pdf)
The second publication provides strategies for researchers to thoughtfully recruit rural adolescents in research on sensitive topics, such as firearm-related research. You can find more information on our Youth Firearm Injury Prevention project page.
- Weybright, E. H., Hall, A., Ellyson, A., Varrella, G., Kuklinski, M., Gause, E., Schleimer, J., Dalve, K., & Rowhani-Rahbar, A. (2024). Strategies for recruiting adolescents in firearm injury research. Injury Prevention. Advance online publication.
Led by Dr. Liat Kriegel, the next publication focuses on needs of rural-serving opioid prevention, treatment, and recovery providers. This work was published in the Community Mental Health Journal.
- Kriegel, L., Hampilos, K., Weybright, E., Weeks, D., Jett, J., Hill, L., Roll, J., & McDonell, M. (2024). Addressing the spectrum of opioid misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery in rural Washington communities: Provider identified barriers and needs. Community Mental Health Journal.
December 2023
New publication on benefits of teens as teachers.
Two prevention science graduate students, Anaderi Iniguez and Erica Doering worked with Dr. Weybright to publish a manuscript on the impact of teen peer education on teen’s own dietary knowledge and behaviors. See full reference below.
- Iniguez, A., Doering, E. L., & Weybright, E. H. (2023). Maximizing dietary knowledge and behavior through a teens as teachers approach. Journal of Extension, 61(3).
November 2023
New publication available on association between boredom and substance use in college students.
Prevention Science graduate student Erica Doering led this work to investigate how different types of boredom are associated with cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use. See full reference below published in a special issue of the journal Cannabis.
- Doering, E. L., Weybright, E., Anderson, A., *Murphy, K., & Caldwell, L. (2023). Associations between trait boredom and frequency of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use in college students [Special Issue]. Cannabis, 6(3), 1489-164.
October 2023
New publications out on health behavior, substance use, and firearm carrying.
- Agans, J. P., Son, J. S., Powers, S. L., *Hanna, S. R., & Weybright, E. H. (2023). College students’ healthy leisure: Latent profile analyses of constraints and negotiation strategies. Leisure Sciences. Advance online publication.
- Ellyson, A. M., Schleimer, J. P., Dalve, K., Gause, E., Weybright, E. H., Kuklinski, M. R., Oesterle, S., & Rowhani-Rahbar, A. (2023). The association of alcohol use and heavy drinking with subsequent handgun carrying among youth from rural areas. The Journal of Rural Health, Advance online publication.
- *Doering, E. L., Weybright, E., Anderson, A., *Murphy, K., & Caldwell, L. (2023). Associations between trait boredom and frequency of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco use in college students. Cannabis [Special Issue]. Advance online publication.
May 2023
Congratulations to Spring 2023 graduates!
Big congratulations to Elizabeth Purser, who is finishing up her Masters in Prevention Science and walked in Spring graduation!
Undergraduate research assistants, Rittick Nandy and Gavin Mina, also graduated with their Bachelor’s degrees! Here’s a photo of Rittick (right) and Gavin (left) presenting a lab poster.
Dr. Weybright joins the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine as Affiliate Faculty
Dr. Weybright has joined the Department of Community and Behavioral Health in WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine as an Affiliate Faculty member.
Dr. Weybright and colleagues’ work on rural firearm injury prevention was highlighted in the WSU Insider
A recent press release focused on work Dr. Weybright has done in partnership with colleagues in WSU Extension and at University of Washington. Read the full story here.
April 2023
Dr. Weybright joins the Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program as Affiliate Faculty!
Dr. Weybright has joined University of Washington’s Firearm Injury & Policy Research Program as an Affiliate Faculty Member.
New publication on impact of prevention systems on handgun carrying behaviors.
Dr. Weybright is a co-author on a new article published in JAMA Network Open titled Effect of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Adolescent Handgun Carrying
A Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial.
Find the article here
See press release here
Dr. Weybright and lab members presented their research at the Society for Research on Adolescence!
Dr. Weybright served as Program Co-Chair for the first annual SRA meeting in San Diego, CA. The in-person meeting was the culmination of over a year’s worth of planning!
Congratulations to lab members who presented!
- Purser, E. & Weybright, E. (2023, April). Another Brick in the Wall: How are school risk and protective factors associated with adolescent hope? Poster presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence Annual Conference, San Diego, CA.
- Watters, C., Weybright, E., Hampilos, K., Purser, E., Doering, E., White, A., Greer, M., Fees, J., Varrella, G., & McDonell, M. (2023, April). “I never realized how hard recovery is.” Evaluation of a youth participatory action research project for opioid misuse prevention. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, CA.
- Hampilos, K., Pascoe, K., Weybright E., Martinez, A. D., Cooper, B., Doering, E., & *Purser, E. (2023, April). Addressing youth cannabis use in a legalized context: Pilot evaluation of an adapted substance use prevention program for youth and families. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, CA.
January 2023
Dr. Weybright and colleagues present rural opioid needs assessment data.
Led by Dr. Kriegel with colleagues from the College of Medicine, our team from the Northwest Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Collaborative (formerly the Center for Rural Opioid Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery) presented a poster on rural provider barriers and needs at the Society for Social Work and Research annual conference.