Dr. Craig A. Field

Craig A. Field

Dr. Craig A. Field is a licensed psychologist and board certified in addiction psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. He is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Latino Alcohol and Health Disparities Research and Training Center at The University of Texas at El Paso.

UTEP Faculty Profile

Research Focus: Intervention Development and Drinking Behavior Change

Dr. Field’s research examines how people change drinking behavior, with a particular focus on intervention development, mechanisms of behavior change, and culturally relevant risk and protective factors that reduce alcohol-related harms. His work applies this focus to alcohol-related health disparities and treatment inequities, especially among Latino and other underserved populations.

Culturally Responsive Intervention Development

Dr. Field’s work spans medical, academic, community, and criminal justice settings. A central theme of his research is the development and evaluation of brief motivational interventions that are responsive to the cultural, social, and contextual experiences of the populations they serve.

His intervention-development work incorporates community and stakeholder input, addresses culturally relevant strengths and challenges, and emphasizes motivational processes such as autonomy, relatedness, competence, autonomous motivation, self-regulation, and social support.

Mechanisms and Cultural Factors in Behavior Change

Across these projects, Dr. Field’s work examines how culturally responsive interventions can strengthen motivational and self-regulatory processes that help individuals reduce alcohol-related harms. His current research program includes work on self-determination theory, protective behavioral strategies, resilience, acculturative stress, collectivistic coping, intergenerational conflict, discrimination, and other culturally relevant strengths, stressors, and protective processes that may shape successful change in drinking behavior.

Funded Research

His research has been supported by federal, state, and foundation sources, including the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Paso del Norte Health Foundation.

Student Training and Mentorship

Dr. Field mentors undergraduate and graduate students in addiction science, intervention development, health disparities research, and culturally responsive behavior-change research. His mentoring approach emphasizes helping graduate students develop independent lines of research that build from, but are not limited to, the research group’s broader expertise in culturally responsive interventions and drinking behavior change.

Recent student-led and student-associated publications reflect this commitment to helping trainees build independent scholarly identities and develop skills relevant to academic, clinical, research, administrative, and applied career paths.

Selected Student-Led and Foundational Publications:

The selected publications below reflect the research interests of recent graduate students, trainees, and collaborators. Together, these manuscripts illustrate how students have developed distinct lines of inquiry within a broader research environment focused on intervention development, self-determination theory, motivational and self-regulatory mechanisms, culturally relevant strengths and stressors, protective factors, and drinking behavior change.

Lindquist, A. M., Portillo, C., & Field, C. A. (2025). Intergenerational conflict is associated with alcohol consequences among Hispanic college student drinkers. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.24-00363

Vera-Adrianzen, X. F., Corral, S. I., Sanchez-Garciaguirre, A. I., & Field, C. A. (2025). Acculturative stress, collectivistic coping, and drinking in a predominantly Latino college sample. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 31(3), 465–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000653

Sanchez-Garciaguirre, A. I., Najera, S. N., Portillo, E. M., & Field, C. A. (2024). The indirect effects of self-regulation on the association of social support with increased protective drinking behavior and decreased alcohol problems in a predominantly Hispanic college student sample. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 48(2), 409–419. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.15253

Richards, D. K., Pearson, M. R., & Field, C. A. (2020). Profiles of motivations for responsible drinking among college students: A self-determination theory perspective. Addictive Behaviors, 111, Article 106550. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106550

Field, C., Oviedo Ramirez, S., Juarez, P., & Castro, Y. (2019). Process for developing a culturally informed brief motivational intervention. Addictive Behaviors, 95, 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.03.002

For more information regarding research and training with Dr Field, please see the Latino Alcohol and Health Disparities Research and Training Center website at https://www.utep.edu/lahdr.