Laurie Chassin, Ph.D. - US grants

The proposed project investigates the patterns and social psychological determinants of substance use among adolescent children of alcoholics (COAs). The high prevalence of COAs among individuals treated for chemical dependency suggests that effective primary prevention efforts aimed at this group could produce substantial public health benefits. There are strong theoretical reasons to believe that adolescent COAs are at high- risk for alcohol and substance use. However, because most research has studied general adolescent population, little is known about the nature, extent, and time course of this risk. Moreover, little is known about the processes that underlie substance use and abuse in this population. The proposed study will follow a sample of 250 COA and 200 non-COA adolescents and their families over a three-year period. The study will identify potentially modifiable risk and protective factors that influence substance use among COA and non-COA adolescents, and will determine whether these factors act in unique ways among COAs. Finally, the study will evaluate the utility of negative affect regulation models of substance use against competing theoretical alternatives. The results of this project will have important implications for both the timing and the content of substance use prevention programs aimed at high-risk adolescents.

The proposed project extends our ongoing longitudinal study of substance use among children of alcoholics (COAs) into young adulthood. The overall goal continues to be determining the extent of COA risk for substance use and abuse and identifying mediating mechanisms underlying this risk. These mechanisms are of theoretical importance for understanding the etiology of substance abuse, and practical importance for designing preventive interventions. Young adulthood is of particular interest because of its high rates of substance use and abuse. Accordingly, we aim to examine the effects of parent alcoholism on young adult substance use and abuse outcomes, and on trajectories of use from adolescence to young adulthood. We examine the psychosocial mechanisms underlying these effects and the consequences of parent alcoholism and adolescent substance use for the important developmental transition to young adulthood. To achieve these aims, we propose a follow-up of our COA and control subjects who will be 18-25 years old, their parents, and peer informants. We also propose to include 400 full biological siblings of our subjects who will also be 18-25. The sample is drawn from the community rather than treatment settings, and includes alcoholic mothers and fathers, and both "active" and "remitted" alcoholics. Parent alcoholism and associated psychopathology were directly ascertained rather than relying on offspring report. Beginning when subjects averaged 12.7 years of age, they and their parents received 3 annual computer-assisted interviews. These multiple reporter data were (and will be) used to minimize the impact of response biases. At follow-up, computer-assisted interviews will be conducted with the young adults, their siblings, and their parents, and telephone interviews will be conducted with peer informants. Young adult outcomes to be assessed include substance use/abuse, other psychopathology, positive outcomes, and the resolution of age-appropriate developmental tasks. Hypothesized mediating variables are derived from theories of substance use and abuse including parent/peer socialization models, stress and negative affect regulation models, temperament models, and models emphasizing cognitions about substance use. Data analytic strategies include hierarchical linear modeling to assess the impact of parent alcoholism and family climate variables on young adult substance use and abuse outcomes, and longitudinal latent growth curve modeling to assess the impact of parent alcoholism and psychosocial risk factors on growth curves of substance use from adolescence to young adulthood. The findings will be of particular relevance for prevention because they focus on a high-risk group, and track the natural history of substance use from its precursors to the development of clinically important end points.

DESCRIPTION: The Arizona State University PRC proposes to continue and expand its excellent program of training researchers at multiple levels in the concepts and methods of prevention research. In the past, the center has been energetic and successful in the training of potential prevention researchers. Their training activities include putting on conferences on prevention research, funding visiting scholars who both participate in training and receive additional training in prevention methods, supporting a speaker series at ASU on prevention, supporting numerous pre-doctoral research projects in the area of prevention, and involving interested undergraduate students as research assistants in prevention studies. The training efforts of the center are closely integrated with their T32 training grant in the same area. These closely integrated with their T32 training grant in the same area. These efforts have been singularly successful in the past and can be expected to continued to be so in the future. Perhaps the most important and successful facet of their training program is their efforts to stimulate research on prevention topics relevant to ethnic minorities and to recruit ethnic minority researchers into the prevention field. They have held two successful conference son ethnic issues, they can be expected to be highly successful in this area in the future. They are proposing the continue these same training efforts during the next five years, hosting a third conference on ethnic minority issues in prevention research. In addition, they propose to expand their efforts in training by offering two short courses using outside faculty (epidemiology and psychophysiology) and by offering a new graduate course in prevention science at ASU.

The proposed project studies a centrally important question in substance use research-namely, how is risk transmitted across multiple generations? First, we follow children of alcoholics (COAs) and controls into adulthood to examine risk for persistent and developmentally limited substance use/abuse, and to identify mediating mechanisms underlying this risk. Second, we examine emerging risk in the next generation using a multi-method laboratory study of reactivity and regulation as mediators of familial alcoholism risk in the young children of our subjects. We examine co-transmission of risk and risk mediators, and we examine the role of parenting in mediating and modifying this risk. To achieve these aims, we propose a follow-up of our sample (at ages 23-30) and a laboratory study of their young children. The sample is drawn from the community, and includes alcoholic mothers and fathers, and both active" and "remitted" alcoholics. Parent alcoholism and other disorders were directly ascertained, and multiple reporter data minimize the impact of response biases. Beginning in adolescence (M=12.7 years), subjects and their parents received 3 annual computer-assisted interviews. A 4th assessment (now including full biological siblings and peer informants) occurred during the transition from late adolescence to adulthood (ages 18-25). At the proposed follow-up, computer-assisted interviews and psychophysiological assessments will be conducted with the adult subjects. Informant data will be collected in mailed surveys. The young children of our subjects will be assessed with multiple methods, including psychophysiological responses, facial expression, behavioral observation, and multiple informant reports of reactivity and regulation, as well as markers of risk for later substance abuse (conduct problems, social competence, ego-resilience and academic achievement). Data analytic strategies include multilevel modeling for modeling observations clustered within families over time. The findings will be particularly useful for prevention because they focus on a high risk group, they track the natural history of substance use from its precursors to clinically important end points, they include potentially modifiable factors, and they examine the transmission of risk across three generations.

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): This application seeks to continue our training program in Prevention Research through the Arizona State University Preventive Intervention Research Center (ASU PIRC). Our program has provided training to 24 pre-doctoral and 22 post-doctoral students since its original funding by NIMH in 1987. We train researchers in the prevention of negative mental health outcomes among high-risk children under stress. Theoretically, we assume that preventive interventions are best derived from a thorough, theory-based, empirically-supported, understanding of the risk and protective factors that influence the development of a targeted outcome. Within this acquisition-oriented framework, we emphasize a stress and coping model that considers the complex interplay of factors at multiple levels, including individual, family, peer, school, neighborhood, and cultural influences. We provide training in theory-based generative research; in the translation of this knowledge base into preventive interventions; in the implementation and empirical evaluation of these interventions; in the methodological and quantitative skills that are necessary to conduct these complex studies; and in the skills required to conduct these studies with different ethnic and cultural groups. The primary training site is the ASU PIRC, in which collaborative research teams conduct and evaluate theory-based preventive interventions for children of divorce, bereaved children, and inner-city children in poverty. Faculty from clinical, social, quantitative, and developmental psychology, family studies, economics, public affairs, and law deliver training through a combination of research apprenticeships, an ongoing training seminar, and formal coursework. This application requests support for 4 post-doctoral and 5 pre-doctoral fellows. Post-doctoral fellows will be recruited from component disciplines such as clinical, social, and developmental psychology, social ecology, statistics, sociology, and family studies. Pre-doctoral fellows are recruited from clinical, social, quantitative, and developmental psychology and family studies.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks to continue our training program in Prevention Research, which has provided training to 41 pre-doctoral and 31 post-doctoral students since its original funding by NIMH in 1987. We train researchers in the prevention of negative mental health outcomes among high-risk children under stress. We assume that preventive interventions are best derived from a thorough, theory-based, empirically-supported, understanding of the risk and protective factors that influence the development of a targeted outcome. We emphasize a stress and coping model that considers the complex interplay of factors at multiple levels including individual, family, peer, school, neighborhood, and cultural influences. We provide training in theory-based generative research; in the translation of this knowledge base into preventive interventions; in the implementation and empirical evaluation of these interventions; in the methodological and quantitative skills that are necessary to conduct these complex studies; and in the skills required to conduct these studies with different ethnic and cultural groups (with a particular focus on Mexican-American children and families). In this project period, we will increase our emphasis on placing these interventions into natural service delivery settings. Training is delivered through the ASU Prevention Research Center (PRC) and its collaborating ASU departments. The PRC is a collaboration between researchers from the Department of Psychology and the Department of Family Relations and Human Development (with more delimited participation from the College of Business and College of Law). The PRC includes multiple NIH-funded prevention research grants in which collaborative research teams design, implement, and evaluate theory-based preventive interventions including interventions for children of divorce, bereaved children, and Mexican-American adolescents making the transition to middle school. Faculty from clinical, social, developmental, and quantitative psychology, family studies, marketing, and law deliver training through a combination of research apprenticeships, an ongoing training seminar, and formal coursework. This application requests support to train 4 post-doctoral and 4 pre-doctoral fellows. Post-doctoral fellows will be recruited from component disciplines such as clinical, social, and developmental psychology, social ecology, statistics, sociology, and family studies. Pre-doctoral fellows are recruited from clinical, social, quantitative, and developmental psychology and family studies.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the United States, and effective antismoking campaigns require an empirical understanding of the natural history of smoking and its determinants. The proposed research extends our cohort-sequential study of smoking and its intergenerational transmission and integrates this study with an experimental, translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Cohorts of 6th-12th graders (N=8,521) were followed annually between 1980-1983 to prospectively predict adolescent smoking transitions with social psychological models. Four additional follow-ups were conducted in 1987-1988;1993-1994;1999-2000, and 2005-2006 (for a total of eight measurement waves with more than 70% retention of the total sample at each wave). Web-based studies of implicit attitudes toward smoking and their role in smoking transitions and the intergenerational transmission of smoking were initiated in the last project period. The proposed studies combine a 9th measurement of our total sample using a mailed survey with short-term longitudinal, studies of targeted subgroups using web-based methods. We embed smoking in a developmental context by relating smoking trajectories to the unique hallmarks of midlife development, and by relating midlife conditions to parents'socialization of smoking in the next generation. We then employ these data in a translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Using web-based, experimental, short-term longitudinal studies of targeted subgroups, we will test the effects of approach-avoidance practice and an anti-smoking PSA on an unobtrusive measure of engagement with intervention information. We will test whether the effects of our interventions are mediated by changes in implicit attitudes, and we will identify the component automatic and controlled processes of implicit attitudes that are responsible for these effects (and that are predictive of later smoking outcomes). The results will be important for improving engagement in family-based smoking prevention programs, tailoring smoking cessation messages aimed at midlife adults, and understanding the intergenerational transmission of smoking. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Because cigarette smoking is the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the US, creating effective prevention and cessation interventions is an important public health goal. The data from the proposed studies will provide a method for improving parents'and adolescents'engagement with family-based smoking prevention, inform the design of antismoking messages aimed at midlife adults, and provide a method for testing the effects of antismoking media messages.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks to continue our training program in Prevention Science, which has provided training to 56 pre-doctoral and 40 post-doctoral students since its original funding in 1987. We train researchers in the prevention of negative mental health outcomes among high-risk children under stress. Because preventive interventions are best derived from a theory-based, empirically-supported, understanding of the risk and protective factors that influence the development of a targeted outcome, we use a stress and coping model to consider the complex interplay of factors at multiple levels including individual, family, peer, school, neighborhood, and cultural influences. We provide training in the translation of this knowledge base into preventive interventions, and in the skills necessary to study the placement of preventive interventions into natural service delivery settings with diverse target audiences. Thus, we provide training in the implementation and empirical evaluation of interventions in natural settings; in the methodological and quantitative skills necessary to conduct these complex studies; and in the skills required to conduct these studies with different ethnic and cultural groups (with a particular focus on Mexican-American children and families). Training is delivered through the ASU Prevention Research Center (PRC) and its collaborating ASU departments. The PRC includes multiple NIH-funded projects in which collaborative research teams design. Implement, and evaluate theory-based preventive interventions In natural service delivery settings for children of divorce, bereaved children, and Mexican-American adolescents transitioning to middle school. Core training faculty are from clinical, social, developmental, and quantitative psychology, and family and human development. Affiliated training faculty are from education, marketing, law, engineering, nursing, and social work. Training is delivered through a combination of research apprenticeships, an ongoing training seminar, and formal coursework. This application requests support to train 4 post-doctoral and 4 advanced pre-doctoral fellows each year. Trainees are recruited from clinical, social, quantitative, and developmental psychology, and family and human development.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cigarette smoking remains the single largest preventable cause of premature death and disability in the United States, and effective antismoking campaigns require an empirical understanding of the natural history of smoking and its determinants. The proposed research extends our cohort-sequential study of smoking and its intergenerational transmission and integrates this study with an experimental, translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Cohorts of 6th-12th graders (N=8,521) were followed annually between 1980-1983 to prospectively predict adolescent smoking transitions with social psychological models. Four additional follow-ups were conducted in 1987-1988; 1993-1994; 1999-2000, and 2005-2006 (for a total of eight measurement waves with more than 70% retention of the total sample at each wave). Web-based studies of implicit attitudes toward smoking and their role in smoking transitions and the intergenerational transmission of smoking were initiated in the last project period. The proposed studies combine a 9th measurement of our total sample using a mailed survey with short-term longitudinal, studies of targeted subgroups using web-based methods. We embed smoking in a developmental context by relating smoking trajectories to the unique hallmarks of midlife development, and by relating midlife conditions to parents' socialization of smoking in the next generation. We then employ these data in a translational application to family-based smoking prevention and midlife cessation. Using web-based, experimental, short-term longitudinal studies of targeted subgroups, we will test the effects of approach-avoidance practice and an anti-smoking PSA on an unobtrusive measure of engagement with intervention information. We will test whether the effects of our interventions are mediated by changes in implicit attitudes, and we will identify the component automatic and controlled processes of implicit attitudes that are responsible for these effects (and that are predictive of later smoking outcomes). The results will be important for improving engagement in family-based smoking prevention programs, tailoring smoking cessation messages aimed at midlife adults, and understanding the intergenerational transmission of smoking.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Excessive drinking is an important cause of preventable death and disability in the U.S., with large economic costs. Alcohol disorders are transmitted intergenerationally, and one in four U.S. children is exposed to parent problem drinking, with associated mental and physical health problems that persist into adulthood. Prevention programs have targeted parenting and family environment because of their theoretical roles in early drinking and risk for alcohol disorder. Deviance proneness theories posit that alcoholic parents provide disorganized and conflictual family environments and parenting that lacks support, monitoring, and consistent discipline, which, in turn exacerbate the effects of a genetically-transmitted vulnerability to behavioral under control on alcohol outcomes However, studies are needed to clarify the role of parenting/family environment in the context of correlated genetic risk. Failing to do so risks mis-estimating parenting effects and mis-identifying the optimal content and audiences for intervention. A small literature using candidate genes has tested parenting as a moderator of genetic risk. However, because candidate genes typically explain only small amounts of variance in outcomes, these studies often provide weak, insufficient tests of gene-environment correlation. This R21 introduces a novel approach to this problem by creating two polygenic risk scores to provide a stronger test of gene-environment correlation. Based on theory and research, we create a polygenic risk score to reflect presumed genomic risk for behavioral under control with SNPs from candidate genes in dopaminergic, glutamatergic, GABAergic, and cholinergic muscarinic systems. We use this score to test parenting/family environment as a mediator and a moderator of presumed genomic risk for behavioral under control. We then add an empirically-derived polygenic risk score as an additional measure of gene-environment correlation that explains substantial variance in parenting. This score is composed of SNPs that are significant in association analyses that we conduct with parenting and >1,200 SNPs (relevant to addiction but not specific to behavioral under control and not included in the theory-driven composite). Incorporating this empirically- derived score as an additional gene-environment correlation measure, provides a more rigorous test of parenting and family environment as mediators and moderators of the effects of theory-driven presumed genomic risk for behavioral under control. The project goals will be accomplished through secondary data analysis of a three-generation, longitudinal, genetically informative, study of the intergenerational transmission of risk for alcohol disorders. Analyses will be conducted for two generations of offspring to provide an internal replication. The results will help to clarify the role of parenting and family environment in drinking outcomes, suggest directions for family-based prevention programs, and provide a method for future studies of gene- environment interplay in the development of risk for alcohol disorder.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposed T32 seeks to provide research training in drug abuse/HIV prevention that reduces the gap between the existing evidence base in prevention science and the interventions that are delivered in real-world settings. That is, we provide training in the implementation science research that is needed to increase adoption of evidence-based drug abuse prevention/HIV risk reduction interventions in real-world settings. We seek to train 3 post-doctoral and 3 advanced pre-doctoral fellows for a two-year period. Core training faculty are drawn from the Arizona State University (ASU) Department of Psychology (including its prevention research center and REACH Institute) and School for Social and Family Dynamics. Affiliated training faculty are from the ASU Colleges of Business, Engineering, Science of Health Care Delivery, Nursing and Health Innovation, Department of Biomedical Informatics, and Mayo Clinic. The program is guided by an External Training Faculty of national experts in implementation science and a Community Advisory Board composed of decision leaders from service delivery settings (schools, courts, health care, and mental health care settings). Training consists of required courses in drug abuse and implementation science, an ongoing training seminar (including training in ethics and career development), and a workshop on HIV risk. These required didactic components are combined with a tailored program of mentored research apprenticeships. Training faculty conduct numerous NIH-funded projects in which collaborative research teams design, implement, and evaluate theory-based preventive interventions in natural service delivery settings and study the implementation science questions related to successful program uptake. Through this combination of didactic coursework and research apprenticeships, trainees acquire skills in designing interventions for implementation, models of cultural adaptation, community-based participatory research, engaging providers and participants, training providers, measuring implementation outcomes and participant outcomes in natural settings, considering contextual factors, using technology for program delivery, and measuring costs and benefits. A unique training resource is the ASU REACH Institute, which focuses on implementation science, including implementation at scale. Other unique strengths of our program include extensive faculty expertise and training opportunities in quantitative methods and in research methods with culturally diverse populations. The research contributions of our trainees will increase the adoption of evidence-based interventions in real world practice, helping to realize their public health impact at the population level.