About

Jeremy Staff is a Professor of Sociology, Criminology, and Demography. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in August 2004. His research interests include criminology, substance use, and adolescent and young adult development. Professor Staff has been involved in numerous research projects funded by notable institutions such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the Economic and Social Research Council. His work often explores the effects of early life experiences, social behaviors, and policy influences on youth and young adult outcomes. He has contributed extensively to the understanding of adolescent substance use, employment, delinquency, and health, with a focus on how these factors intersect during critical developmental periods.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Demography
• Medicine
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Changes in ENDS Harm Perceptions Predict Intentions to Initiate ENDS Use in Tobacco-Naive Adolescents

  Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs · 2026-02-16

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Youth who use electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) products have lower perceptions of the health harms of ENDS products compared to youth not using ENDS. However, it remains unclear whether lower harm perceptions precipitate youths' intention to use, consistent with theories of health behavior. We examined whether changes in ENDS harm perceptions were associated with intentions to start using ENDS in the next year, among tobacco-naïve youth. METHODS: Using six annual waves of data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study Wave 4 Youth Cohort (2016/18 to 2022/23; ages 12-17 at baseline), we examined within-person associations between change in ENDS harm perceptions and intention to use ENDS within the next year among youth who had not used any tobacco or nicotine (N=14,319). Fixed effect logistic regression models were estimated for the overall sample and by sex, and tests for coefficient equality were used to identify sex differences. RESULTS: When youth reported decreases in ENDS harm perceptions, they had an increased likelihood of intent to start using ENDS (aOR=1.77; 95% CI=[1.41, 2.23]). In contrast, waves in which youth reported increases in ENDS harm perceptions were associated with a decreased likelihood of intent to initiate ENDS use (aOR=0.43; 95% CI=[0.38, 0.48]). These within-person associations were similar for girls and boys. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in harm perceptions among tobacco-naïve adolescents may precipitate a decision to start using ENDS and should be a target for future prevention efforts to reduce ENDS initiation among youth.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The long-term effects of adolescent work on adult socioeconomic attainment

  Research in Social Stratification and Mobility · 2026-02-20

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Overlap Between Interpersonal Cyber Victimization and Delinquency in Adolescence

  Victims & Offenders · 2026-04-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The countervailing impacts of significant 2020 events on youth delinquency

  Criminology · 2025-05-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract We test hypotheses that three significant events in the year 2020 impacted U.S. youths’ involvement in crime: (H1) less delinquency due to the coronavirus‐19 (COVID‐19) pandemic and associated constraints to youths’ routine activities and substance use; (H2) more delinquency due to the police killing of George Floyd and ensuing social unrest, particularly among Black youth from communities disproportionately affected by police violence; and (H3) more delinquency due to growing political disaffection, especially among White youth from areas where people were most dissatisfied with the presidential election. To test the countervailing impacts of these significant events on youth delinquency, we combined individual‐level data on crime, routine activities, and political disaffection from a large sample of 12th‐grade youth ( n = 3648) collected in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, with community‐level data on school closures, constraints to geographic mobility and social interaction, police killings of civilians, election‐related protests, and perceptions of election fairness. Overall, delinquency declined by 29% from 2019 to 2021 in part because youth less often engaged in unstructured activities and less frequently used alcohol and other drugs. Youth crime, however, did not decline in communities with high levels of police violence.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Risk and Protective Factors Associated With Susceptibility to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Initiation in Adolescence

  Nicotine & Tobacco Research · 2025-12-23

  article1st authorCorresponding

  INTRODUCTION: Among nicotine-naïve youth, cognitive susceptibility (i.e., intentions/willingness to use) is a powerful predictor of initiating use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS). Our research objective is to examine the time-varying adolescent and family risk and protective factors that may be associated with youth susceptibility to ENDS initiation. METHODS: We used hybrid panel models on longitudinal data from parents and youth aged 12 to 17 in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, followed over 7 survey waves between 2015 and 2023. Analyses included 16,142 nicotine-naïve youth whose ENDS susceptibility was assessed over 43,427 longitudinal observations. RESULTS: Youth were susceptible to ENDS initiation in 25.9% of longitudinal observations. Youth were more susceptible when they believed using ENDS was safer and less addictive than smoking, when they had high weekly earnings, and when they believed ENDS were easy to buy. Youth problem behaviors, and both parents' and friends' ENDS use, also predicted greater odds of ENDS susceptibility. The odds of susceptibility were lower when youth resided in homes with vaping bans, when they believed their parents would be upset if they started vaping nicotine, and when they were earning good grades. Girls were more susceptible to ENDS initiation than boys. CONCLUSIONS: Parents may be interested in potentially malleable factors associated with greater susceptibility, including youth drinking alcohol, believing ENDS are safer and less addictive than smoking, and having friends who use ENDS. Conversely, maintaining household vaping bans and parental disapproval of ENDS were linked with lower susceptibility. IMPLICATIONS: Research consistently identifies cognitive susceptibility-defined as intentions and willingness to use ENDS-as a powerful predictor of ENDS initiation in adolescence. Less is known about specific risk factors that heighten nicotine-naïve adolescents' willingness to vape nicotine or protective factors that may deter their intentions to initiate ENDS use. To address this gap, the present study leveraged longitudinal data to identify key adolescent and family risk factors that are associated with youth susceptibility to ENDS initiation.

  PublisherDOI

• The countervailing impacts of significant 2020 events on youth delinquency

  CrimRxiv · 2025-07-22

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We test hypotheses that three significant events in the year 2020 impacted U.S. youths’ involvement in crime: (H1) less delinquency due to the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated constraints to youths’ routine activities and substance use; (H2) more delinquency due to the police killing of George Floyd and ensuing social unrest, particularly among Black youth from communities disproportionately affected by police violence; and (H3) more delinquency due to growing political disaffection, especially among White youth from areas where people were most dissatisfied with the presidential election. To test the countervailing impacts of these significant events on youth delinquency, we combined individual-level data on crime, routine activities, and political disaffection from a large sample of 12th-grade youth (n = 3648) collected in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, with community-level data on school closures, constraints to geographic mobility and social interaction, police killings of civilians, election-related protests, and perceptions of election fairness. Overall, delinquency declined by 29% from 2019 to 2021 in part because youth less often engaged in unstructured activities and less frequently used alcohol and other drugs. Youth crime, however, did not decline in communities with high levels of police violence.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Risk of adolescent cigarette use in three UK birth cohorts before and after e-cigarettes

  Tobacco Control · 2025-07-29 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: Longitudinal data from three UK birth cohorts (born in 1958, 1970 and 2001) were used to (1) document the historic decline in adolescent cigarette smoking; (2) examine how e-cigarette use is associated with adolescent cigarette smoking in the most recent cohort; and (3) compare probabilities of cigarette smoking across the cohorts. METHODS: The prevalence of adolescent cigarette smoking was assessed in 1974 from 11 969 youth in the National Child Development Study (NCDS), in 1986 from 6222 youth in the British Cohort Study (BCS), and in 2018 from 9733 youth in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds of adolescent smoking (ages 16-17) based on a common set of childhood risk and protective factors; adolescent e-cigarette use was included as a predictor in the more recent MCS. RESULTS: Adolescent cigarette smoking declined from 33% in 1974 to 25% in 1986 and to 12% in 2018. 11% of MCS youth reported current e-cigarette use. Though childhood risk factors for later adolescent smoking were mostly similar across the three cohorts, the risk of cigarette smoking in the MCS varied greatly by e-cigarette use. Among MCS youth, the average predicted probability of smoking ranged from 1% among e-cigarette naïve youth to 33% among youth currently using e-cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who use e-cigarettes have a similar smoking prevalence to earlier generations. Policy and prevention should seek to prevent adolescent nicotine exposure via both electronic and combustible cigarettes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Policy influences on adolescent risk perceptions of vaping

  Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · 2025-06-27 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  AIMS: Electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) use by youth remains a significant public health concern. Perceived risk is an important predictor of adolescent ENDS use. While state policies have been shown to affect ENDS use, and perceived risk is inversely associated with use, whether policies shape adolescent risk perceptions remains less well studied. METHODS: We used longitudinal (2013-2019) US adolescent data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study-a population-based sample of adolescents enrolled between ages 12 and 17-and state policy data for ENDS and tobacco policies. Hybrid within-person and between-person panel models estimated associations of policies with three outcomes: perceived harms of ENDS, perceived risk of addiction and perceived risk of ENDS compared with smoking. RESULTS: Within-person findings revealed that ENDS purchase age restrictions were associated with increased odds of reporting categories of greater perceived harm (OR=1.65), perceived risk of addiction (OR=1.14) and risk relative to smoking (OR=1.60). Similarly, smoking bans were associated with perceived harm (OR=1.33), perceived risk of addiction (OR=1.21) and risk relative to smoking (OR=1.36). Between-person models indicated that ENDS excise taxes and purchase age restrictions, as well as smoking bans, were associated with all three perceived risk outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing smoking bans, excise taxes and purchase age restrictions may present an avenue to heighten perceived risk among youth. As such, policies may enhance prevention of initiation and improve interventions for youth who vape. Further, as greater duration of exposure to policies is associated with increased risk perceptions, maintaining consistently strong policies is important.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Youth Initiation of Cannabis Vaping Is Associated With State Cannabis Policy and E-Cigarette Use

  Journal of Adolescent Health · 2025-06-27 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Comprehensive vaping bans are associated with lower odds of initiation into electronic nicotine delivery systems use among young people

  Addiction · 2024-02-27 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND AND AIMS: E-cigarette and other electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use has grown considerably over the past decade, with notable increases among young people. US state policy contexts for ENDS and tobacco may shape initiation into ENDS use among adolescents as they age into early adulthood. We aimed to determine whether state-level comprehensive vaping ban policies reduce the odds of youth initiation into ENDS use, net of additional state-level ENDS and tobacco policies, as well as the youth's cigarette smoking status. DESIGN: Longitudinal data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study were merged with a state-year database on tobacco and ENDS policies. Multivariable discrete-time event history models of ENDS initiation were estimated. SETTING: United States. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty thousand twelve youth assessed over six waves from 2013 to 2019 (n = 53 974 observations). MEASUREMENT: We examined comprehensive indoor vaping bans (i.e. 100% vape-free workplaces, restaurants and bars) as a key factor in initiation into ENDS use (i.e. first instance of vaping) from age 13 to 22. FINDINGS: Among young people, residing in a state with a comprehensive vaping ban was associated with 18% lower odds of ENDS initiation (odds ratio = 0.82; 95% confidence interval =[0.71, 0.94]), even after controlling for other state ENDS and tobacco policies, the youth's cigarette smoking and socio-demographic background and state-level covariates. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, state-level vaping bans (i.e. 100% vape-free workplaces, restaurants and bars) are associated with reduced odds of youth initiation into electronic nicotine delivery systems use.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant K01HD054467

  NIH · $691k · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Jennifer L. Maggs

  Pennsylvania State University

  31 shared

• Jeylan T. Mortimer

  University of Minnesota

  24 shared

• Mike Vuolo

  The Ohio State University

  21 shared

• John E. Schulenberg

  14 shared

• Brian C. Kelly

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  9 shared

• Jerald G. Bachman

  8 shared

• Richard B. Felson

  Pennsylvania State University

  7 shared

• Megan E. Patrick

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  7 shared