Intentional personality change: Towards preventing problem drinking

University Of Kentucky, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

I have begun a program of research on the precipitants of change in personality traits that confer high risk for young adult problem drinking. This work has focused on the trait of negative urgency, the tendency to act rashly when distressed; negative urgency has been shown, in meta-analytic research, to relate more strongly than other impulsigenic traits to problem drinking (Berg et al., 2015; Stautz & Cooper, 2013), and, in prospective work, to predict the onset of, and increases in, drinking behavior (Riley et al., 2016). Using longitudinal designs, my colleagues and I have demonstrated that (1) very early onset drinking predicted subsequent increases in negative urgency, which in turn predicted yet further drinking, suggesting a positive feedback loop of prospective increases in both negative urgency and drinking (Riley et al., 2016); and (2) increases in negative urgency following early drinking behavior mediated the predictive impact of elementary school drinking on multiple negative high school outcomes, including increased drinking, smoking, and binge eating (Riley & Smith, in press). Recently, a co-sponsor of this proposed traineeship published evidence that a training program produced reductions in negative urgency in a small sample of women suffering from PTSD (Weiss et al., 2015). The scientific premise of this proposal is to test whether this training program produces (a) reductions in drinking behavior, (b) reductions in negative urgency among heavy drinking young adults, and (c) evidence that reduced negative urgency mediates the impact of the training on drinking behavior. I propose to test these hypotheses using a within-subjects laboratory design within a sample of heavy drinking young adults. A successful test will have direct implications for the prevention of heavy drinking behavior. Because negative urgency has been shown to increase risk transdiagnostically, findings may have implications for comorbid disorders and reducing other risky, impulsive behaviors as well. A key component of the training plan of this proposal is for me to receive training in conducting laboratory, experimental studies, because my work thus far has primarily involved longitudinal studies. Thus, the training plan includes: (1) training in the design and execution of laboratory, experimental studies; (2) training in how to conduct the negative urgency reduction training, which focuses on emotion modulation; (3) training in multilevel modeling: my planned program of research will involve studies of observations nested within people, nested within groups; (4) further advanced training in research ethics, including a second graduate course on ethical research with clinical populations and attendance at the University's clinical ethics grand rounds and research ethics lecture series; (5) preparation of research reports for publication, including learning how to respond effectively to revise and resubmit decisions; (6) presenting original research at leading, international scientific meetings; and (7) training in the mentoring of junior graduate students and undergraduate research assistants, including those assisting with the proposed research.