Rebecca Collins is a behavioral scientist at RAND. Her expertise is on child policy, adolescents, HIV, STDs, and sexual behavior research. She received her PhD in social psychology at UCLA. Her current research examines health risk behaviors, including a national study exploring associations between exposure to sexual content on television and adolescent sexual attitudes and behavior. She is also studying the effects of alcohol advertising on underage drinking. Other work examines relationships between substance use and sexual risk behavior, one is a longitudinal study of young adults and another is a study of people with HIV. Her early research concerned social-cognitive factors in adaptation to adversity, particularly social support and social comparison processes.