About

Professor Samuel Meisel leads the SUMMIT Lab at Boston University, which focuses on understanding and addressing adolescent substance use. The lab's research centers on the challenges faced by teenagers, including navigating puberty, social relationships, and increased demands at school, all of which contribute to the initiation and continuation of substance use such as alcohol, cannabis, and nicotine. Recognizing adolescent substance use as a significant public health concern due to its links with mental health conditions, altered brain development, and increased risk of substance use disorders in adulthood, Professor Meisel's work aims to reduce these risks through scientific study and intervention. The SUMMIT Lab investigates the developmental pathways that lead to adolescent substance use and seeks to identify the key components of effective treatments that result in behavioral change. A particular emphasis is placed on the role of social relationships, including peer and caregiver influences, and how these interact with various environmental and individual factors such as temperament, schools, and neighborhoods. The lab's overarching goal is to leverage developmental science to improve and scale treatments for adolescent substance use, thereby supporting teenagers in successfully navigating this critical period. Under Professor Meisel's guidance, the lab actively engages in research dissemination and mentorship, with lab members presenting at conferences and receiving awards for their work. The lab environment fosters collaboration and community, as evidenced by regular gatherings and recognition of undergraduate research achievements. Overall, Professor Meisel's professional focus is on advancing the understanding of adolescent substance use mechanisms, motivations, and interventions to promote healthier developmental outcomes.

Research topics

• Clinical psychology
• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Internal medicine
• Medicine
• Chemistry
• Developmental psychology

Selected publications

• Behavioral Healthcare Treatment Access Patterns in Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders

  2026-01-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Importance: Despite 2 million adolescents (aged 12-17) in the United States having a substance use disorder (SUD), little is known regarding where they seek behavioral healthcare (e.g., mental health treatment, substance use treatment, or both). Adolescents have higher rates of co-occurring major depressive episodes (MDEs) than adults with SUDs, which may increase their use of mental health services. Understanding where adolescents with SUDs enter behavioral treatment is crucial to ensure adequate workforce preparedness to care for them where they seek help.Objective: To determine where adolescents with SUDs, with or without co-occurring MDE, present to behavioral health treatment. Design: This was a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional nationally representative survey.Setting: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health for adolescents (2022-2023). Data were analyzed between October 2025 and December 2025.Participants: A sample of 24,541 adolescents between the ages of 12-17 from the United States of America. Exposures: Treatment setting, SUD diagnosis, past year substance use, MDE diagnosis, adolescent age, biological sex, race and ethnicity, insurance status, household income, and study year. Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): Behavioral health treatment setting (i.e., mental health treatment, substance use treatment, both, or none) among adolescents with a SUD. Results: Adolescents with a SUD were significantly more likely to engage in mental health (34.7% [95% CI: 30.9-38.8%]) than SU treatment (18.6% [95% CI: 15.8-21.8%], F1,50=62.2, p<.001). Similarly, adolescents with co-occurring SUD and MDE were significantly more likely to engage in mental health (70.7% [95% CI: 65.6-75.3%]) than SU treatment (21.2% [95% CI: 17.5-25.5%], F1,50=43.7, p<.001). Minoritized adolescents with a SUD (aPR = 0.82 [95% CI: 0.71-0.94], p = .007) were less likely, while female respondents with a SUD (aPR = 1.22 [95% CI: 1.07-1.40], p=.006) were more likely to receive any treatment. Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that adolescents with a SUD were twice as likely, and adolescents with co-occurring SUD and MDE over three times more likely, to engage in mental health compared to substance use treatment. Clinically, these results suggest mental health treatment may serve as a critically important touchpoint to treat adolescents with SUDs.

  PublisherDOI

• Reciprocal associations between adolescent extracurricular activity availability and engagement and alcohol-related cognitions and norms: Moderation by socioeconomic status.

  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors · 2026-03-02

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  OBJECTIVE: The present study examined reciprocal associations between structured and unstructured extracurricular activity access and engagement and reasons against drinking and descriptive drinking norms in a predominantly alcohol naïve adolescent sample. Socioeconomic status (SES) was tested as a moderator of these bidirectional associations, considering access to and benefits of structured activities may vary by SES. METHOD: = 1,023; 52% female; 76% White, 5% Black, 12% Latine; 28% from urban school districts), preregistered latent growth curve models with structured residuals tested reciprocal associations and whether they varied by SES. RESULTS: The relative availability of structured activities to total extracurricular activities (i.e., structured and unstructured) decreased across time, whereas relative engagement remained constant. Reasons against drinking decreased, and descriptive norms increased across time. There was no support for preregistered bidirectional hypotheses for extracurricular access or engagement and descriptive norms. At the between-person level, adolescents who continued participating in structured activities had more reasons against drinking in early adolescence and showed slower declines in these reasons over time. Contrary to our hypotheses, for most waves, when adolescents had greater engagement in structured activities than their typical levels, they had significantly lower reasons against drinking at the next wave. Despite growth trajectories differing across SES, there was no evidence for SES moderation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between- and within-person effects when studying extracurricular activities, as well as better capturing the interpersonal processes that occur during extracurricular activities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Examining predictors of momentary susceptibility to peer influence

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Susceptibility to peer influence refers to how perceived and actual peer behaviors motivate or affect an adolescent’s own actions (Brechwald and Prinstein, 2011). Susceptibility to peer influence is conceptualized to peak during adolescence when youth are highly motivated to form close peer connections and obtain social status. Existing research shows that teens lower in susceptibility to peer influence were more likely to display abstinence from vaping and marijuana use (Skinner et al., 2014). Further, a central feature of many prevention programs for adolescent substance use teach skills to help teens reduce their susceptibility to momentary peer influence. To date, susceptibility to peer influence has been measured as a trait using self-report measures or using experimental paradigms (Allen et al, 2022). Despite theoretical perspectives, including how succumbing to peer influence is a contextually based outcome (Laursen & Faur, 2022) and prevention programming conceptualizing susceptibility to peer influence as a momentary process, no work, to our knowledge, has examined momentary susceptibility to peer influence. Using a sample of 14-20-year-olds who completed four consecutive weekends of ecological momentary assessments (EMAs), the current study will examine momentary predictors of susceptibility to peer influence and link experimental and demographic variables to momentary susceptibility to peer influence.

  PublisherDOI

• Predictors and Trajectories of Negative and Positive Interpersonal Dynamics in Remission From Alcohol Use Disorder

  Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research · 2026-05-01

  article

  BACKGROUND: Research has established social networks as a critical determinant of recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet limited research exists investigating quality of interpersonal dynamics, especially during the transition to remission from AUD. Positive interpersonal dynamics (friendship and emotional support) may reinforce recovery, whereas negative interpersonal dynamics (hostility and rejection) may undermine it. Identifying determinants of interpersonal dynamic trajectories, including remission, may guide the development of personalized interventions. METHOD: = 41.42, 57.5% female) who were assessed at baseline, and 1.5, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months later on measures of recovery capital, negative and positive interpersonal dynamics (NIH toolkit scales), and other measures assessing demographic, clinical, and psychological process variables (e.g., abstinence self-efficacy). Latent growth models examined trajectories and time-invariant predictors of positive and negative interpersonal dynamics. RESULTS: Negative interpersonal dynamics declined at the first follow-up and flattened over the remainder of the year. These results differed by remission status, with the greatest reduction in negative interpersonal dynamics among those who achieved abstinent remission at 12-month follow-up. Positive interpersonal dynamics did not change significantly throughout the study period. In covariate models, baseline recovery capital predicted positive and negative interpersonal dynamic intercepts and slopes, and there were differences in significant predictors across remission groups. CONCLUSIONS: Among those achieving AUD remission (abstinent or non-abstinent) at 12 months, early recovery is marked by reductions in negative interpersonal dynamics, in contrast to those who do not achieve remission. Regardless of outcome, little change was observed in positive interpersonal dynamics. The predictive utility of recovery capital highlights a modifiable outcome that could help improve the quality of interpersonal dynamics in recovery, although confirmation of this relationship is warranted.

  PublisherDOI

• Behavioral Healthcare Treatment Access Patterns in Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-02-14

  preprintOpen access

  Importance: Despite 2 million adolescents (aged 12-17) in the United States having a substance use disorder (SUD), little is known regarding where they seek behavioral healthcare (e.g., mental health treatment, substance use treatment, or both). Adolescents have higher rates of co-occurring major depressive episodes (MDEs) than adults with SUDs, which may increase their use of mental health services. Understanding where adolescents with SUDs enter behavioral treatment is crucial to ensure adequate workforce preparedness to care for them where they seek help. Objective: To determine where adolescents with SUDs, with or without co-occurring MDE, present to behavioral health treatment. Design: This was a secondary data analysis of a cross-sectional nationally representative survey. Setting: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health for adolescents (2022-2023). Data were analyzed between October 2025 and December 2025. Participants: A sample of 24,541 adolescents between the ages of 12-17 from the United States of America. Exposures: Treatment setting, SUD diagnosis, past year substance use, MDE diagnosis, adolescent age, biological sex, race and ethnicity, insurance status, household income, and study year. Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s): Behavioral health treatment setting (i.e., mental health treatment, substance use treatment, both, or none) among adolescents with a SUD. Results: Adolescents with a SUD were significantly more likely to engage in mental health (34.7% [95% CI: 30.9-38.8%]) than SU treatment (18.6% [95% CI: 15.8-21.8%], F1,50=62.2, p<.001). Similarly, adolescents with co-occurring SUD and MDE were significantly more likely to engage in mental health (70.7% [95% CI: 65.6-75.3%]) than SU treatment (21.2% [95% CI: 17.5-25.5%], F1,50=43.7, p<.001). Minoritized adolescents with a SUD (aPR = 0.82 [95% CI: 0.71-0.94], p = .007) were less likely, while female respondents with a SUD (aPR = 1.22 [95% CI: 1.07-1.40], p=.006) were more likely to receive any treatment. Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that adolescents with a SUD were twice as likely, and adolescents with co-occurring SUD and MDE over three times more likely, to engage in mental health compared to substance use treatment. Clinically, these results suggest mental health treatment may serve as a critically important touchpoint to treat adolescents with SUDs.

  Publisher

• A Indirect Internalizing Pathway to Adolescent Alcohol Use and The Moderating Role of Parenting Behaviors

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access

  The externalizing pathway to adolescent substance use, which is strongly backed by years of research, demonstrates that externalizing behaviors during adolescence (e.g., aggression, delinquency) are consistent predictors of deviant peer affiliation and subsequent substance use (Brook et al., 2011; De Geronimo et al., 2024; Rudolph et al., 2013). However, evidence substantiating a direct internalizing pathway to adolescent substance use remains inconsistent, with some researchers finding symptoms predictive (Gonzales et al., 2018; Hussong et al., 2017; Hussong et al., 2011) and others finding them protective against use (Colder et al., 2012; Rieselbach et al., 2024; Winters et al., 2008). The internalizing model of adolescent substance use (Hussong et al., 2011) and recent research suggest an indirect internalizing pathway, where internalizing symptoms increase risk for substance use by initially contributing to the development of externalizing behaviors, which subsequently predict association with deviant peers (Rothenberg et al., 2020; Willis et al., 2022). Although the links between externalizing behaviors, deviant peer affiliation, and alcohol use have been well established (Brook et al., 2011; Bülow et al., 2025; Gonzales et al., 2018; Siennic et al., 2016), few studies have tested the full indirect internalizing pathway looking at internalizing symptoms to externalizing behaviors to deviant peers to alcohol use and the role of parenting behaviors on this trajectory. Evidence reveals that several parenting behaviors can be powerful moderators of the relationship between internalizing and externalizing behaviors (Bülow et al., 2025; Chassin et al., 2005; Gorostiaga et al., 2019; Hou et al., 2013; King & Chassin, 2004; Pinquart, 2016; van der Sluis et al., 2015; Willis et al., 2022). Using longitudinal data collected from adolescents and parents, the current study will test the indirect internalizing pathway to adolescent alcohol use. Specifically, we will examine whether internalizing symptoms prospectively predict externalizing symptoms, which will predict deviant peer affiliation, which in turn predict alcohol use and willingness to use alcohol. Parental warmth and parent-child conflict will be analyzed as moderators of the internalizing-to-externalizing link, with warmth expected to weaken and conflict expected to exacerbate the relationship. By examining emotional, behavioral, social, and familial domains, this project aims to clarify a potential developmental pathway to adolescent alcohol use and identify novel targets for family-based prevention and intervention.

  PublisherDOI

• Adolescents social connection, craving, and substance sue in daily life.

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Adolescence is a developmental period marked by a shift in social contexts. During this time, attention moves from caregivers toward peers, and sensitivity to peer evaluation, acceptance, and belonging increases (Blakemore et al., 2014; De Lorme et al., 2013). This process of social reorientation is considered a core feature of socioemotional development in adolescence (Nelson et al., 2005). Experiences of closeness, acceptance, and belonging are central to socioemotional development and well-being (Flores et al., 2018). In this developmental context, disruptions in social connection, such as social rejection or exclusion, may increase the risk for substance use in daily life (Laws et al., 2017; Knapp et al., 2021). In addition, negative social interactions are associated with higher craving whereas higher quality social interactions are associated with lower craving (Knapp et al., 2021). Extending prior work to evaluate social connectedness during adolescence and the potential mediating role of craving, the current study will examine prospective associations between social connection and substance use, and whether these associations are mediated by craving, in a sample of middle and late adolescents. (Sanjuan et al., 2019; Serre et al., 2015).

  PublisherDOI

• The Daily Self: How Agency, Communion, and Authenticity Shape Adolescent Mental Health and Substance Use

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen accessSenior author

  Philosophers and psychologists have long believed that authenticity is a fundamental aspect of human growth (Thomaes et al., 2017). Authenticity is defined as an individual’s tendency to behave in accordance with their true feelings, thoughts, and attitudes (Baker et al., 2017). Understanding what promotes authenticity is particularly important during adolescence, a period where identity formation is a key developmental task (Alchin et al., 2024). Authenticity is conceptualized to promote well-being and psychological adjustment and decrease substance use behaviors (Wenzel & Lucas-Thompson, 2012). According to both Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory (CIIT), adaptive individual behaviors in interpersonal contexts (i.e., agency and communion), and interpersonal dynamics (i.e., dominance and warmth complementarity), promote authenticity (Nielsen et al., 2024). Historically, authenticity has been conceptualized as a trait (Sedikides & Schlegel, 2024), but this view has begun to shift. Recent evidence demonstrates that authenticity is situational and can vary day by day (Lenton et al., 2016). Despite the developmental importance of authenticity, few studies have tried to understand state authenticity in adolescents, specifically its effects on mental health and substance use. Understanding whether agentic and communal behaviors, as well as dominance and warmth complementarity, can predict greater authenticity, which in turn may reduce mental health symptoms and substance use, could help identify interpersonal targets for prevention programming.

  PublisherDOI

• Trajectories of interpersonal distress and reciprocal associations with alcohol use in the first year following an alcohol use disorder recovery attempt

  Alcohol · 2026-04-07

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Understanding Adolescents’ Willingness to Drink and Alcohol Use: The Moderating Roles of Consequence Portrayals on Social Media & Alcohol Expectancies

  Open Science Framework · 2026-01-01

  otherOpen access

  Alcohol use is fairly prevalent among adolescents, with 32.9% of those aged 12-20 reporting lifetime drinking, and 27% reporting past-year drinking (NSDUH, 2024). Adolescents are particularly at risk of experiencing negative consequences due to their general naiveté to alcohol use and patterns of intermittent heavy use, often in social contexts that facilitate drinking even when adolescents plan not to drink. The prototype-willingness model proposes that an adolescent’s behavioral willingness to drink predicts their actual alcohol use through a ‘social reaction’ path, in which they may be more likely to drink alcohol in social settings when their willingness to do so is higher, as a result of having more positive attitudes and prototypes of what a ‘typical drinker’ looks like. Since willingness is a consistent predictor of adolescent alcohol use initiation and escalation, it is important to identify moderating factors that magnify or attenuate this relationship. Social learning theory posits that attitudes toward alcohol (e.g., willingness) are shaped through witnessing the negative or positive consequences of alcohol use vicariously experienced by their peers, friends, and family. Understanding the social-cognitive factors that influence the relationship between willingness and alcohol use is critical for identifying targets for prevention programming aimed at reducing alcohol use progression during adolescence. Alcohol outcome expectancies, which refer to cognitions about alcohol use and its reinforcing effects, are one social-cognitive factor that may influence the degree to which an adolescent’s willingness to drink alcohol influences their future alcohol use. Social learning theory (Maisto et al., 1999) suggests that adolescents develop alcohol expectancies not only through direct experience, but through direct and symbolic ‘models’ in their immediate social context (e.g., seeing their peers and parents drink, depictions of alcohol in the media). Expectancies about alcohol use have been shown to directly predict alcohol use behaviors and consequences of drinking (e.g., Reese et al., 1994), likely through the ‘reasoned path’ described in the prototype-willingness model. Yet, given that these dual-paths likely operate in tandem in a given social context, expectancies may also influence whether one’s willingness to drink predicts their subsequent drinking behaviors as a function of whether they hold more positive or more negative outcome expectancies about alcohol use. Specifically, willingness may be more strongly related to greater alcohol use for adolescents with positive alcohol outcome expectancies. In contrast, willingness may be less strongly associated with reductions in use when adolescents have negative expectancies about drinking alcohol. Examining alcohol expectancies during adolescence may be key in identifying adolescents who are at greater risk for escalation of drinking as a result of their willingness to engage in drinking behaviors. Social context may also influence the degree to which willingness relates to future alcohol use. Social media is an increasingly important social context, where adolescents spend significant amounts of their time (4+ hours/day on average; Gallup Familial and Adolescent Health Survey, 2023). Although previous research has examined social influence on drinking through peers or traditional media (e.g., movies), social media is distinct due to its ubiquity in adolescents’ social lives, and because social media depictions of drinking overemphasize positive consequences of drinking (Niland et al., 2014). Unlike peer influence, which typically occurs in person and in drinking contexts, the unique features of social media (e.g., likes, shares, algorithmic feeds) facilitate new opportunities for adolescents to vicariously learn about alcohol and its consequences from peers, family members, influencers, or others whose content is recommended to them. Since adolescents are more intimately involved in witnessing, engaging with, and learning about consequences of drinking on social media as a result of these unique features (Nesi et al., 2018), they are more consistently exposed to content depicting consequences (given the ease of scrolling through social media platforms) and may engage with such content even outside of drinking contexts (e.g., while “doomscrolling”). Thus, the relationship between adolescents’ willingness to drink and their alcohol use may be a function of whether they engage with content depicting more positive or more negative consequences of drinking. Adolescents’ greater alcohol use as a result of their willingness may be amplified when they also primarily consume content depicting positive consequences of alcohol use; this shift in magnitude may be reversed when adolescents consume content that primarily depicts negative consequences instead, such that alcohol use is reduced. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which adolescents’ alcohol use is influenced by their willingness to drink, and whether this association varies as a function of their alcohol outcome expectancies and their exposure to positive or negative portrayals of consequences of alcohol use on social media. We will examine this among a sample of high school-aged teenagers participating in a longitudinal study of media and alcohol use.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Leveraging Ecological Momentary Assessment to Examine Peer Affiliations as a Mechanism of Behavior Change in Youth Alcohol Use Treatment

  NIH · $159k · 2020–2023

• Assessing Parenting at the Momentary Level to Understand Parenting Behaviors that Contribute to Improved Treatment Outcomes for Youth with Co-Occurring Disorders

  NIH · $365k · 2022–2024

• An Examination of the Joint Effects of Adolescent Social Goals and Parenting Styles on Underage Drinking

  NIH · $55k · 2017–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Robert Miranda

  Brown University

  73 shared

• Sarah A. Thomas

  Brown University

  47 shared

• Hayley Treloar Padovano

  Brown University

  37 shared

• Katherine Toder

  36 shared

• Paul Crits‐Christoph

  University of Pennsylvania

  36 shared

• Shannon Wiltsey Stirman

  National Center for PTSD

  36 shared

• Andrea K. DeVito

  VA Boston Healthcare System

  36 shared

• Amber Calloway

  36 shared

Labs

• SUMMIT LabPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University at Buffalo, the State University of New York

  2020

• Other, pre-doctoral internship

  Brown University

• Other, NIAAA-funded F32 postdoctoral fellowship and K99 postdoctoral fellowship

  E. P. Bradley Hospital and Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies

Awards & honors

• Two-year NIAAA-funded F32 postdoctoral fellowship
• Two-year NIAAA-funded K99 postdoctoral fellowship