The University Life Study | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

The University Life Study is designed to examine links between motivations, daily activities, college experiences, and risk behaviors (including alcohol use, sexual behavior, other substance use, and gambling) among university students.

This National Institute on Alcohol Abuse funded study uses a longitudinal + measurement burst design to examine developmental changes and situational fluctuations in links between risk behaviors across contexts. Our web-based data collection was launched in Fall 2007 with over 725 African American, Asian American, European American, and Hispanic/Latino American first-year students.

Each semester from the fall of freshman to senior year, participants complete a longer developmental web-survey and a series of 14 consecutive daily web-surveys. Using multi-level daily and longitudinal models, we are testing hypotheses about the extent to which associations between risk behaviors (e.g., drinking and sex) vary as a function of intrapersonal (e.g., motivations) interpersonal (e.g., relationship status) and environmental (e.g., Spring Break) predictors.