James Jaccard

James Jaccard is an Emeritus Professor at NYU Silver. Dr. Jaccard was initially trained as a psychologist with specialties in attitude change and decision making, but later expanded his research program to embrace social work and public health. His research focuses on adolescent and young adult problem behaviors, particularly those related to unintended pregnancy and substance use, broadly defined. He has developed parent-based interventions to teach parents how to more effectively communicate and parent their adolescent children so as to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancies and problems due to substance use. He also has developed protocols for contraceptive counseling of young adults in health clinics. He was involved in the seminal work on the influential Theory of Reasoned Action and has extended that theory to emphasize split second decision making dynamics. Dr. Jaccard also has active research programs on the assessment of implicit prejudice and its role in predicting discriminatory behavior. He is collaborating with Dr. Michelle Munson on mental health engagement in young adults and in the role of cognitive behavior therapy in a wide range of treatment settings. 

Dr. Jaccard also has an extensive background in psychometrics and statistical methods. He has written numerous books and articles on the analysis of interaction effects in a wide range of statistical models, and teaches advanced graduate courses on structural equation modeling. He has written several influential articles on the issue of arbitrary metrics in social science research. Dr. Jaccard also has written about theory construction and how to build conceptual models. He recently completed a book with Professor Jacob Jacoby that gives social scientists practical, hands-on approaches for generating ideas, thinking about solutions to problems, and translating these ideas into coherent, scientific theories.

He received his AM and PhD in psychology with a minor in quantitative psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana. He received his AB in psychology with a minor in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ford, C. A., Pool, A. C., Kahn, N. F., Jaccard, J., & Halpern, C. T. (2023). Associations between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships and young adult health. JAMA Network Open, 6(3), e233944-e233944.

Jaccard, J. and Jacoby, J. (2020). Theory construction and model building skills: A practical guide for social scientists. New York: Guilford (First edition in 2010).

Jaccard, J. and Bo, A. (2018). Prevention science and child/youth development: Randomized explanatory trials for integrating theory, method, and analysis in program evaluation. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research (special issue on prevention science and the youth development grand challenge), 9, 651-687.

Munson, M., & Jaccard, J. (2016). Mental health service use: A communication framework for program development. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 1-19.  

Jaccard, J. (2016). The prevention of problem behaviors in adolescents and young adults: Perspectives on theory and practice. Journal of the Society for Social Work Research, 7, 585-613.

Blanton, H., Burrows, C. & Jaccard, J. (2016). To accurately estimate implicit influences on health behavior, accurately estimate explicit influences. Health Psychology, 35, 856 860.

Hamby, A., Brinberg, D., & Jaccard, J. (2016). A conceptual framework for narrative persuasion. Journal of Media Psychology, 1-21.

Jaccard, J., & Levitz, N. (2015). Parent-based interventions to reduce adolescent problem behaviors: New directions for self-regulation approaches. In G. Oettingen and P. Gollwitzer (Eds.) Self-regulation in adolescence. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., Strauts, E., Mitchell, G. & Tetlock, P. (2014). Toward a meaningful metric of implicit prejudice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100, 1468-1481.

Oswald, F.L., Mitchell, G., Blanton, H., Jaccard, J. and Tetlock, P. (2013). Reassessing the predictive power of the race IAT: A new meta-analysis of criterion studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 171-192.

Guilamo-Ramos, V., Bouris, A., Jaccard, J., Gonzalez, B., McCoy, W and Aranda, D. (2011). A parent-based intervention to reduce sexual risk behavior in early adolescence: Building alliances between physicians, social workers, and parents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48, 159-163.

Turrisi, R., Abar, C., Mallett, K. & Jaccard, J. (2010). An examination of the mediational effects of cognitive and attitudinal factors of a parent intervention to reduce college drinking. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 2500-2526.

Blanton, H. and Jaccard, J. (2008). Unconscious prejudice: A concept in pursuit of a measure. Annual Review of Sociology, 34, 277-297.

Blanton, H. & Jaccard, J. (2006). Arbitrary metrics in psychology. American Psychologist, 61, 27-41.

Jaccard, J. and Blanton, H. (2005). The origins and structure of behavior: Conceptualizing behavior in attitude research. In D. Albarracín, B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Handbook of attitudes and attitude change. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Jaccard, J., Blanton, H. & Dodge, T. (2005). Peer influences on risk behavior: An analysis of the effects of a close friend. Developmental Psychology, 41, 135-147

Breitkopf, C., Catero, J., Jaccard, J. & Berenson, A. (2004). Psychological and sociocultural perspectives on follow-up of abnormal papanicolaou results. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 104, 1347-1354.

Jaccard, J., and Turrisi, R., (2003) Interaction effects in multiple regression. Newbury Park: Sage.

Ramos, B., Jaccard, J. & Guilamo-Ramos, V. (2003). Dual ethnicity and depressive symptoms: Implications of being Black and Latino in the United States. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25, 147-173.