The overall aim of the REACT Study is to create and assess smartphone-based cognitive tasks to examine how acute alcohol intoxication affects attention. First, we will adapt laboratory-based cognitive tasks for use on smartphones. To maximize usability, feedback will be gathered in rapid prototyping interviews with young adults. Then, we will evaluate the adapted smartphone tasks in two settings: (1) a controlled laboratory session in which young adults are administered a standard dose of alcohol, and (2) real-world drinking experiences over eight weekends, as measured with phone surveys and a wrist-based alcohol biosensor. Findings are expected to clarify the role of alcohol-related attentional narrowing in real-world behaviors. Results will be used to inform the development of just-in-time adaptive interventions to prevent alcohol-related consequences.
Patient Population: Young Adults
Identity, Resilience, and Interconnection after Stress (IRIS)
The IRIS Study is a longitudinal examination of young adults who have experienced an unwanted sexual experience in the past year, and those who have never had an unwanted sexual experience. This study aims to prospectively examine how young adults’ thoughts about a recent unwanted sexual experience are shaped by and influence social relationships and health-related behaviors over time. To do so, this multimethod study involves in-depth interviews, social network assessments, ecological momentary assessments, transdermal alcohol biosensors, and online surveys over one year. This study is conducted by researchers at both the University of Washington and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
THRIVE Study
This is a study of an app intended to support recent sexual assault survivors, called THRIVE. In a prior grant, we pilot tested THRIVE and found that it reduced risk for alcohol misuse and posttraumatic stress. In the first year of this grant, we aim to revise the app to increase usability and inclusivity. In the second through fifth years of the grant, we will conduct a larger randomized controlled trial of multiple versions of the app among college students who have experienced sexual assault in the past 12 weeks. This will allow us to identify the most effective and low-burden version of THRIVE. If we are successful in identifying a highly effective and efficient version of THRIVE, this intervention would represent a highly-scalable strategy to reduce the substantial burden of posttraumatic stress and alcohol misuse on student survivors and campus service systems.
The Missouri Safety and Transportation (MOST) Study: Norms Documentation for Missouri Positive Community Norms Project
The team at the University of Washington (UW) will be working on this norms documentation project as “Phase One” of two separate contracts (the other to The Montana Institute (TMI)). At the request of ACT Missouri (with funding from the Missouri Department of Transportation), the UW team proposed survey items and collected data on both descriptive norms (actual behaviors) and injunctive norms (attitudes) related to seat belt use. In this pilot, data that were collected from young adults in Missouri will be used in a Positive Community Norms (PCN) campaign (developed and implemented by TMI during “Phase Two” of this project using the data collected in “Phase One”).
Health Outcomes of Betting on Sports (Project HOBS)
Project HOBS is examining associations between sports betting, mental health, and substance use among young adults. Surveys are collected bi-weekly for one calendar year (25 follow-ups) and at a distal 15-month follow-up.
COVID-19 pandemic and changes in the prevalence, patterns, and trajectories of substance use and related health risk outcomes among young adults in WA State
This project examines changes in young adult substance use, related health risk behaviors, and substance use-related risk factors from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic among young adults in WA state (where alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis sales and use are legal for adults age 21 and over) using the accelerated longitudinal cohort sequential data from the Washington Young Adult Health Study. Findings will inform tailoring and development of prevention and intervention efforts aimed at reducing health risk behaviors and improving public health in emergent situations that pose serious challenges for effective long-term planning of such efforts.
Achieving Reach in Youth Behavioral Health and Wellness through Catchment-Area Community Governance
This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of the Youth Wellness Hub as a hyper-local community governance model for integrating delivery and financing systems for youth behavioral health and wellness services. The Youth Wellness Hub combines three social policy tools that are separately promising or well-supported in the research literature: community governance; public health education campaigns; and service network coordination through fiscal blending. The study uses a mixed-methods approach to assess feasibility of the model as tested in Tacoma, Washington, including surveys and interviews with community organizations together with a network analysis of these organizations. The study is conducted by the University of Washington in collaboration with the Excelsior Center for Health and Wellness, the Safe Streets Coalition, and other community partners.
Developing a cannabis intervention for young adults with psychosis
Up to one-third of young people experiencing early psychosis use cannabis, and one in four meet criteria for a cannabis use disorder. Cannabis use is associated with multiple negative outcomes, including relapse, rehospitalization, increased psychotic symptoms and reduced treatment engagement and medication adherence. Psychosis relapse is a particularly devastating and costly outcome, leading to greater disability and accounting for $37 billion in healthcare costs per year. Cannabis is considered the most preventable cause of psychosis relapse. Despite this, no effective cannabis-reduction intervention has been developed for this population.
This study will address the urgent need for an effective cannabis-reduction intervention for this high-risk population by adapting a gold-standard treatment, Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), for youth and young adults living with psychosis. A tailored cannabis intervention and provider manual will be developed and evaluated for feasibility and acceptability. This novel intervention has the potential to mitigate the costly impact of psychosis on public health systems and ultimately improve psychosis outcomes among young people living in Washington State.
Identifying and treating loneliness in young adults in primary care
Loneliness, defined as the feeling of insufficient personal relationships, affects over 20% of young adults. Those with loneliness are more depressed and anxious and have poorer educational outcomes. Cognitive behavioral therapy and social navigation can successfully treat loneliness but previous studies have mostly looked at older adults.
The objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of identifying and alleviating loneliness in young adults identified in primary care practices. This project will screen young adults ages 18-25 presenting in primary care for loneliness and pilot the interventions of cognitive behavioral therapy and social navigation for those who test positive for loneliness.
Improving mental health in adolescents and young adults with long COVID through exercise
Long Covid includes symptoms of fatigue, sleep changes, anxiety and depression lasting at least three months following infection with COVID-19 and occurs in 10-20% of individuals following infection. Approximately 16% of children experience persistent mood symptoms as part of their Long Covid symptoms. This amounts to over two million children with new symptoms of anxiety and depression after COVID-19 in the US since the onset of the pandemic. Studies show that gradual increases in exercise targets or “pacing” improves symptoms in adults with Long Covid, but this treatment remains to be evaluated in children. Most pacing programs require weekly in-person physical therapy visits and therefore, are difficult to access. Our group has demonstrated improvement in mental health outcomes for adolescents following concussion using a virtual paced exercise program, Mobile Subthreshold Exercise Program (MSTEP). This project aims to evaluate MSTEP as an intervention to improve function and improve mental health symptoms in adolescents and young adults with Long Covid.
