Hilary Byrnes is currently a Research Scientist at the Prevention Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, and she completed the postdoctoral program at PRC and University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health. She is interested in neighborhood influences on adolescent alcohol use and other problem behaviors.
Dr. Byrnes is currently the Principal Investigator for a project funded by NICHD (1R01HD078415-01A1, Byrnes, PI), called the Healthy Communities for Teens (HCT) project, that examines exposure to contextual risks and resources in spaces where teens spend time (activity spaces), and how these are related to teens’ alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and delinquency. Investigators from PRC and other institutions collaborate on the project, specifically Dr. Brenda Miller at PRC, Dr. Sarah Wiehe at Indiana University and Dr. Douglas Wiebe at the University of Pennsylvania.
She also collaborates on a project developing a web-based family prevention program for older teens alcohol use and risky sexual behavior, as well as on a study to provide social drinking groups at nightclubs with the necessary skills to identify vulnerability to high risk behaviors (excessive alcohol use, drug use, physical and/or sexual aggression, and unsafe exit behaviors) and to provide them with tools to protect their members against those risks.
Her publications are listed on NIH’s National Library of Medicine site and on our publications page as well.
Selected Projects
Changing Environmental Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Use and Risk Behaviors
