RIA: Principal Investigator - Kathleen A. Parks, PhD

Principal Investigator

Behavioral Psychology

Primary Research Areas

Women’s substance use and misuse; victimization; drinking contexts.

Current Projects

College Student’s Perceptions of the Positive and Negative Consequences of Non-Medical Prescription Drug (NMPD) Use. This two year research project focuses on non-medical prescription drug (NMPD) use among college students and involves a collaborative effort among scientists at three SUNY campuses (Buffalo, Binghamton, and Albany). The project is designed to assess student perceptions of the types of NMPDs being used, motives for use, and the positive and negative consequences of use across the three SUNY campuses through a web-based survey. The research is intended to foster future, collaborative research efforts (in collaboration with Amy Hequembourg, PhD, Sherri Darrow, PhD, Stephen Lisman, PhD and Mark Muraven, PhD).

Men’s Alcohol Use and Perpetration of Sexual Aggression (funded by NIAAA). Investigation of the impact of men's alcohol consumption on the perpetration of sexual aggression among young college students (in collaboration with Principal Investigator Maria Testa, PhD and Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD).

Video Vignettes: Measuring Risk Perception in Alcohol Related Sexual Assaults (funded by NIAAA). Development of a new computerized video vignette measure to assess women's ability to perceive risks for sexual assault during heterosexual drinking situations (in collaboration with Co-investigators Maria Testa, PhD , Ronda L. Dearing, PhD, and Amy Hequembourg, PhD).

Ongoing Research

College Women: The Alcohol and Victimization Link (funded by NIAAA). This five-year longitudinal project utilized a web-based survey of nearly 1,000 young women entering college in the fall of 2004 and examined the relationship between alcohol consumption and victimization experiences (verbal, physical, sexual) over four years of college.

Women Bar Drinkers: Exploring Risks for HIV (funded by NIAAA). Investigating the role of alcohol in increased risk for heterosexual HIV transmission among women (in collaboration with Co-investigators R. Lorraine Collins, PhD, of UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions, and Amy M. Buddie, PhD, of Kennesaw State University in Georgia).

Representative and Recent Publications

Levonyan-Radloff, K., Parks, K. A., & Collins, R. L. (in press). Women bar drinkers’ discussions about birth control and risky sexual behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Parks, K. A., Hsieh, Y., Collins, R. L., & Levonyan-Radloff, K. (2011). Daily assessment of alcohol consumption and condom use with known and casual partners among young female bar drinkers. AIDS and Behavior,15,1332-1341.
DOI 10.1007/s10461-010-9829-2

Parks, K. A., Hsieh, Y., Collins, R. L., Levonyan-Radloff, K., & King, L. P. (2009). Predictors of risky sexual behavior with new and regular partners in a sample of women bar drinkers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs, 70, 197-205.

Hequembourg, A., Parks, K. A., & Vetter, C. (2008) Sexual identity and gender differences in substance use and violence: An exploratory study. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 2, 174-198.

Parks, K. A., Hequembourg, A. L., & Dearing, R. L. (2008). Women's social behavior when meeting new men: The influence of alcohol and childhood sexual abuse. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32, 145-158.

Parks, K. A., Hsieh, Y., Bradizza, C. M., & Romosz, A. M. (2008). Factors influencing the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and experiences with aggression among college women. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22, 210-218.

Parks, K. A., Romosz, A. M., Bradizza, C. M., & Hsieh, Y. (2008). A dangerous transition: Women's drinking and related victimization from high school to the first year at college. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 69, 65-74.

Parks, K. A., Pardi, A. M., & Bradizza, C. M. (2006). Collecting data on alcohol use and alcohol- related victimization: A comparison of telephone and web-based survey methods. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 67, 318-323.

Parks, K. A., & Kennedy, C. L. (2004). Club drugs: Reasons for and consequences of use. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 36, 295-302.

Buddie, A., & Parks, K. (2003). The role of the bar context and social behaviors on women’s risk for aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18, 1378-1393.

Parks, K. A., & Quigley, B.M. (2001). Riskier lifestyle, aggression and public drinking: Findings from a general population of adults in the United States. In M. Martinez (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Society on Aggression, Valencia, Spain: Prevention and control of aggression and the impacts on its victims. London: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing.

Parks, K. A., & Scheidt, D. M. (2000). Male bar drinkers’ perspective on female bar drinkers. Sex Roles, 43, 927-941.