Jennifer B. Unger, Ph.D.

Dr. Unger is a professor at the Claremont Graduate University School of Community and Global Health. Her research focuses on psychosocial and cultural predictors of substance use and other health-related behaviors among adolescents, including acculturation, cultural values, peer influences, family influences, and stressful life events. Dr. Unger is conducting several large-scale studies of adolescents’ health behaviors across cultural contexts.

Education

• University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1996

Selected Publications

Unger, J. B. (2004). Gene-environment interactions in substance use: How will we use transdisciplinary findings to improve health outcomes? Substance Use & Misuse, 39(10-12), 2086-2087.

Unger, J. B., Reynolds, K., Shakib, S., Spruijt-Metz, D., Sun, P., & Johnson, C. A. (2004). Acculturation, physical activity, and fast-food consumption among Asian-American and Hispanic adolescents. Journal of Community Health, 29(6), 498-509.

Unger, J. B., Trinidad, D. R., Weiss, J. W., & Rohrbach, L. A. (2004). Acculturation as a risk factor for smoking among Asian American adolescents: Is the association confounded by nationality? Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 3(1), 65-79.

Johnson, C. A., Unger, J. B., Ritt-Olson, A., Palmer, P. H., Cen, S. Y., Gallaher, P., et al. (2005). Smoking prevention for ethnically diverse adolescents: 2-year outcomes of a multicultural, school-based smoking prevention curriculum in Southern California. Preventive Medicine, 40(6), 842-852.

Ritt-Olson, A., Unger, J. B., Valente, T., Nezami, E., Chou, C.-P., Trinidad, D. R., et al. (2005). Exploring peers as a mediator of the association between depression and smoking in young adolescents. Substance Use & Misuse, 40(1), 77-98.