Lerner Center Research Publications

Monica Deza and Maria Zhu

What role does the school environment play in shaping adolescent mental health? This brief examines how the mix of boys and girls in a classroom affects student mental health and wellbeing. The authors find that classrooms with more girls have better mental health outcomes for both boys and girls. 

Andrew S. London, Kevin M. Antshel, Joshua Grove, Iliya Gutin, and Shannon M. Monnat

This brief summarizes findings from a study that describes differences in lifetime and past-year use of 7 illicit drugs (marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and hallucinogens) and misuse of 4 categories of prescription medications (opioids, tranquilizers, sedatives, and stimulants) between U.S. adults ages 18-64 with and without ADHD in 2023. The authors find that adults with ADHD are 1.6 to 3.3 times more likely to report past-year illicit drug use or prescription drug misuse than those without ADHD.

Qiyu Deng

This data slice uses data from the 2020 Health and Retirement Study to examine gender and age differences in loneliness among older adults (50+) in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic. 

Andrew S. London and Kevin M. Antshel

This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined whether having a sibling and/or a parent on active duty in the U.S. military is associated with suicidality (i.e., thinking about death a lot, believing oneself is better off dead, thinking about suicide, planning suicide, and attempting suicide) among 12- to 17-year-old adolescent girls and boys in the United States. 

Hannah Patnaik, Andrew S. London, and Kevin M. Antshel

This brief summarizes findings from a recently completed pilot study testing the efficacy of behavioral interventions aimed at encouraging daily physical activity (i.e., steps measured with an activity tracker) among adolescents with ADHD. 

Bryce Hruska, Maria L. Pacella-LaBarbara, and Marley S. Barduhn

This data slice shows that EMS personnel at agencies with high-risk PSC levels report 38% more mental illness stigma in the workplace compared to workers at agencies with low-risk PSC levels.

Nastassia Vaitsiakhovich, Scott D. Landes, and Shannon M. Monnat

This brief summarizes findings from a study that examined differences in happiness and perceived meaning in life between U.S. working-age adults (ages 18-64) with versus without a self-care disability (such as difficulty eating, using the toilet, or dressing without assistance) and the role social support plays in improving happiness and meaning in life.

Xue Zhang, Danielle Rhubart, and Shannon M. Monnat

This data slice shows that suicide rates among working-age adults in 2016-2019 were significantly lower in counties with more SI, even after accounting for county-level differences in demographic composition (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, education), health care availability, and metropolitan status.

Tianqi Zhou

This data slice shows that while Asian adults in the United States have lower average anxiety levels than other ethnoracial groups, they experienced the largest increase in average anxiety between 2020 and 2022. 

Mariah Brennan and Emily Graham

This brief summarizes the different military discharge types, explains how less than “Honorable” discharges can affect veteran health, identifies groups of veterans who are at risk of receiving a less than “Honorable” discharge, and makes policy recommendations for the Department of Defense (DoD), civilian employers, and community healthcare providers.

Joshua Grove

This data slice uses data from the 2022 National Wellbeing Survey to explore the prevalence of depression and anxiety among U.S. adults ages 18-64.

Maria T. Brown and Miriam Mutambudzi

This data slice explores the associations between psychiatric history and cognitive function among U.S. White, Black, and Hispanic adults aged 65 and older from 1995 to 2014. 

Emily Graham

This brief explores the barriers to accessing Collegiate Recovery Programs on college campuses and provides recommendations to enhance student engagement and wellbeing.

Jessica Pac, Christine Durrance, Lawrence Berger, and Deborah Ehrenthal

Andrew Sullivan and Changwe Park

This brief examined differences in homelessness and employment outcomes between places that received a MAT grant and those that did not.

Shannon Monnat

This brief describes demographic and geographic differences in fatal drug overdose rates from 1999-2020. 

Alexander Cheung, Joseph Marchand, and Patricia Mark

The authors of this brief quantify the lost labor productivity from opioid overdoses in Canada. 

Colleen Heflin and Xiaohan Sun

This brief shows that states with higher initial OxyContin® misuse rates had an increase in food insecurity after OxyContin® reformulation. 

Jessica Drescher and Carrie Townley-Flores

This brief shows that students in counties with high levels of opioid prescribing are learning more slowly over time than their peers in counties with low levels of opioid prescribing. 

Rajeev Darolia, Sam Owens, and John Tyler

This brief describes the link between county-level opioid overdose rates and children’s test scores, finding that counties with higher overdose rates have lower average 3^rd and 8th-grade test scores than counties with lower overdose rates.