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Get to Know Dr. Scaglione (click for video)

Dr. Scaglione will be accepting a PhD student for the 2025-2026 academic year. Be sure to submit your application by December 1, 2024 for full consideration for admission and competitive funding opportunities. Dr. Scaglione also has research opportunities for undergraduate and master's students in her lab. Please contact her via email for more information.

Biography:

Nichole Scaglione, PhD, CHES, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Education and Behavior. Dr. Scaglione has over 10 years of experience leading federally-funded (i.e., DoD, CDC, NIH) projects aimed at reducing substance misuse and sexual violence in adolescents and young adults. Her research combines health behavior theory and mobile technologies to examine decision-making processes associated with drinking, drug use, and sexual risk, both globally and at the event level (during specific drinking/substance use occasions). She uses findings from her etiological work to develop and test interventions that target these processes to reduce individual and community risk for sexual violence (current NIH/NIAAA R34).

Prior to joining the HEB faculty, Dr. Scaglione was a public health scientist at RTI International where she played a major role in the development and feasibility testing of a tailored, tablet-based sexual assault prevention program in Basic Military Training for the U.S. Air Force. She has recently adapted and tested the efficacy of this training for the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Other ongoing projects include a community-based evaluation of a bystander and violence prevention training for staff at alcohol-serving establishments (CDC U01), a rigorous evaluation of a sexual violence prevention program for high school boys (CDC R01), and secondary data analysis of event-level alcohol use and contextual risk factors associated with sexual risk in college.

Research Interests:

• Risk and protective behaviors associated with sexual assault outcomes (victimization, revictimization, perpetration, bystander behavior)
• Decision-making processes that impact substance use and sexual risk
• Novel interventions for preventing violence and/or substance abuse
• Adolescent, college, and military populations
• Event-level data collection and intervention methods

Recent Publications:

1. Scaglione, N. M., Ward, R. M., Buben, A., & Turrisi, R. (2023). Alcohol’s role in sexual decision-making in first-year college women: An event-level assessment. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 48(1), 121-132. https://doi.org/10.1177/03616843231186319
2. *Carr, C., King, L., Maizel, J., Scaglione, N., Stetton, N., Varnes, J., & Tomko, C. (2023). Strategies and interventions used to prevent violence against sex workers in the United States: A scoping review using the social-ecological model. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231214786
3. Dora, J., Piccirillo, M., Foster, K. T., Arbeau, K., Armeli, S., Auriacombe, M., Bartholow, B., Beltz, A. M., Blumenstock, S. M., Bold, K., Bonar, E. E., Braitman, A., Carpenter, R. W., Creswell, K. G., De Hart, T., Dvorak, R. D., Emery, N., Enkema, M., Fairbairn, C. E., . . . Scaglione, N. M., … King, K. M. (2023). The daily association between affect and alcohol use: A meta-analysis of individual participant data. Psychological Bulletin, 149(1-2), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000387
4. Rizzo, A. J., Klein, L. B. & Scaglione, N. M. (2023). Alcohol’s role in campus sexual assault bystander behavior: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(5), 3662-3677. PMID: 36398981. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380221134633
5. Scaglione, N. M.,Turrisi, R., Sell, N. M., Mallett, K. A., & Cleveland, M. J. (2022). An ecological momentary assessment of college women's decisions to use protective behavioral strategies. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(15-16), NP13291-13314. PMCID: PMC9502027. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211005143 
6. Almog, S., Scaglione, N. M., Cheong, J. W., Rung, J. M., Vasquez Ferreiro, A., & Berry, M. S. (2022). Spending time in nature serves as a protective factor against problematic alcohol use: A structural equation modeling approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(20), 13356. PMCID: PMC9603149. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013356
7. Eckhoff, R., Boyce, M., Watkins, R., Kan, M., Scaglione, N. M., Pound, L., & Root, M. (2022). Examining the use of mobile technology to deliver tailored sexual assault prevention in a classroom environment in the military: Development and usability study. JMIR: eHealth and mHealth, 10(11), e41455. PMID: 36383404. https://doi.org/10.2196/41455
8. Mallett, K. A., Turrisi, R., Reavy, R., Sell, N., Waldron, K. A., Scaglione, N. M., & Ackerman, S. D. (2022). What predicts willingness to experience negative consequences in college student drinkers? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 83(5), 704–711. PMCID: PMC9523755. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.20-00378
9. Scaglione, N. M.,Buben, A., Williams, J. A., Clarke, T., Elek, E., & Graham, P. W. (2021). A latent class analysis of prevention approaches used to reduce community-level prescription drug misuse in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Primary Prevention, 42(3), 279-296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-021-00631-6
10. Cance, J. D., Saavedra, L., Wondimu, B., Scaglione, N. M.,Hairgrove, S., & Graham, P. W. (2021). Examining the relationship between social connection and opioid use: A systematic review. Substance Use & Misuse, 56(10), 1493-1507. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2021.1936056
11. Close, C., Elek, E., Roberts, C. A., Clarke, T., Scaglione, N. M.,Palen, L. A. & Graham, P. W. (2021). A national cost analysis of community interventions to prevent underage drinking and prescription drug misuse. Prevention Science, 22, 1071-1085. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01229-4.