Targeted Condition: Heath risk behaviors/health behaviors

Brain, Environment, and Alcohol Research (BEAR) Study

This project examines how brain responses to alcohol cues interact with everyday social contexts to shape drinking in young adult heavy drinkers. We pair multimodal neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG) with a 2-week ecological momentary assessment including transdermal alcohol monitoring and photo-based context capture. We test whether neural incentive salience predicts real-life intoxication, how social features (group size, familiarity, gender mix) influence drinking, and how perceived norms mediate these effects. We further assess whether incentive salience moderates context and norm influences. Findings will refine models of alcohol use disorder etiology and inform prevention and intervention strategies by linking precise brain markers with ecologically valid, context-rich assessments.

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.

Cannabis legalization and changes in young adult substance use, related health risk behaviors, and risk factors in WA State (Project YAM)

This project involves analyses of data from the Washington State Young Adult Health Study to examine the impact of cannabis legalization on cannabis-related risk factors, substance use, and related health risk behaviors such as driving while intoxicated, and to study developmental trajectories of substance use and the role of community level and other cannabis-specific risk factors in the context of legalized cannabis among young adults in Washington State.