Why Smart Teens Get in Trouble: How Parents & Peers Push Substance Use
About this Event
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Topic: Why Smart Teens Still Get into Trouble: How Parents and Friends Push Substance Use
Speaker: Dr. Samuel Meisel (Boston University)
Every year, more than 1 in 5 teens use alcohol, nicotine, or other substances before they finish high school. Our usual explanation? Bad choices, bad kids. But what if the real drivers aren't inside the teenager - they're in the relationships around them?
Dr. Samuel Meisel's research sits at the intersection of clinical psychology and developmental science. As Director of the SUMMIT Lab at Boston University, he studies how peer and caregiver relationships shape why adolescents start using substances - and how well they respond to treatment. His work treats friends and family not as background noise, but as the central levers for both risk and intervention.
Topics include:
- The developmental context of youth substance use
- The role of peers in adolescent substance use
- The role of parents in adolescent substance use
- Potential avenues for improving adolescent substance use interventions
This talk combines clinical psychology and developmental science to explain why even smart, well-supervised teens get pulled into trouble — and what parents and clinicians can do about it.
About the Speaker
Dr. Samuel Meisel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Boston University and the Director of the SUMMIT Lab.
A licensed clinical psychologist, his research explores the developmental pathways of adolescent substance use, focusing heavily on how peer and caregiver relationships interact with environmental influences to affect addiction etiology and treatment.
Dr. Meisel completed his undergraduate degree at Boston University before earning his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His highest professional honors and recognitions include receiving prestigious, consecutive postdoctoral fellowships funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), notably a two-year F32 fellowship followed by a highly competitive K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award to support his specialized research in adolescent behavior change.
Agenda
7:00 PM — Doors Open & Drinks
7:30 PM — Lecture Begins
8:10 PM — Audience Q&A
8:30 PM — Drinks & Conversation
9:00 PM — Event Ends
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 32.95
