Publications by authors named "Jordan D Alexander"

Purpose: Potential health consequences of adolescent smartphone use are a growing public concern. Improving upon existing, largely self-report-based research, this study investigated relationships between adolescent smartphone use, sleep, and physical activity using passive sensor measures.

Methods: Over three weeks, 791 Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study participants (M=14.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 introduced unprecedented disruptions impacting the emotional well-being and daily routines of US youths. However, the patterns and persistence of these impacts over the pandemic's multiyear course remain less well understood.

Objective: This study examined longitudinal changes in affect and daily mobility patterns observed in adolescence and young adulthood from June 2016 to April 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive functions that help direct goal-related behavior. EFs are usually measured via behavioral tasks assessed in highly controlled laboratory settings under the supervision of a research assistant. Online versions of EF tasks are an increasingly popular alternative to in-lab testing.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Parental monitoring is a key intervention target for adolescent substance use, however this practice is largely supported by causally uninformative cross-sectional or sparse-longitudinal observational research designs.

Methods: We therefore evaluated relationships between adolescent substance use (assessed weekly) and parental monitoring (assessed every two months) in 670 adolescent twins for two years. This allowed us to assess how individual-level parental monitoring and substance use trajectories were related and, via the twin design, to quantify genetic and environmental contributions to these relationships.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previous research links risky sexual behavior (RSB) to externalizing problems and to substance use, but little research has been conducted on relationships between internalizing problems (INT) and RSB. The current study addresses that literature gap, using both a twin sample from Colorado (N = 2567) and a second twin sample from Minnesota (N = 1131) in attempt to replicate initial results. We explored the hypothesis that the latent variable INT would be more strongly associated with the latent variable RSB for females than for males, examining relationships between INT and RSB via phenotypic confirmatory factor analysis and multivariate twin analyses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Youth behavior changes and their relationships to personality have generally been investigated using self-report studies, which are subject to reporting biases and confounding variables. Supplementing these with objective measures, like GPS location data, and twin-based research designs, which help control for confounding genetic and environmental influences, may allow for more rigorous, causally informative research on adolescent behavior patterns. To investigate this possibility, this study aimed to (1) investigate whether behavior changes during the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood are evident in changing mobility patterns, (2) estimate the influence of adolescent personality on mobility patterns, and (3) estimate genetic and environmental influences on mobility, personality, and the relationship between them.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study examines relationships between drink refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) and outcomes in Project Options (PO), an adolescent alcohol use early intervention. 1171 US high school students (39.3% Hispanic, 59.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF