Senior Research Scientist
Educational Psychology
School of Nursing
1021 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14203-1016
Phone: (716) 887-2380
Email: livingst@ria.buffalo.edu
Impact of victimization on adolescent health and development, adolescent substance use and sexual behavior, sexual assault risk factors and prevention.
For the past decade, Dr. Livingston’s research has been dedicated to understanding the factors that can compromise adolescent health and development, particularly substance use, risky sexual behavior and victimization. One current study examines the acute and long-term effects of involvement with peer aggression (bullying and sexual harassment), how the qualities of the victimization experience (e.g., perpetrator characteristics, type of aggression, frequency) impact an individual’s acute response to victimization, and how involvement with bullying as a victim or perpetrator contributes to the development of substance use over time. Another study (funded by the Committee for Children) on child health and safety aims to evaluate a series of videos designed to help parents talk to their children about child sexual abuse (CSA). The goals of this study are to examine whether viewing the videos increases parent motivation and efficacy for discussing CSA with their children.
A future avenue of study seeks to develop an intervention aimed at reducing alcohol-involved sexual assault among college women through the use of motivational interviewing to promote friends as bystanders who can intervene in sexually risky situations.