Momentary Geospatial, Psychological, and Behavioral Risk for Substance Use in Young Adults Under Criminal Justice Supervision

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Project Summary/Abstract This K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will facilitate my long-term career goal of establishing an independently-funded, interdisciplinary research program focused on collecting and analyzing intensive longitudinal data (ILD) to understand and reduce substance use disorders (SUDs) in justice-involved and other high-risk populations, as well as to disseminate the findings to inform and develop mHealth interventions. Justice- involved young adults are more likely to struggle with SUDs than the general population, and their substance use often involves polysubstance use rather than single drug use. However, there is limited understanding of the naturalistic settings and psychological and behavioral antecedents of polysubstance use in vulnerable young adults. Like other vulnerable subgroups, substance use has often been examined with traditional methodologies, such as cross-sectional or clinical/lab-based designs; yet, these assessment methods are not well suited to capture the real-time interactions experienced by most young adults under criminal justice supervision. In line with NIDA’s strategic objective of addressing real-world complexities of polysubstance use in vulnerable young adults, as well as identifying the context of these interactions to develop and disseminate effective interventions, this project will test the momentary psychological, behavioral, and geospatial risk for substance use in young adults under criminal justice supervision by integrating geographically-explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) data with risk terrain modeling (RTM). I am a criminologist who uses a developmental psychopathology framework to study health-risk behaviors across the life course with a strong foundation in developmental psychopathology, longitudinal design methodologies, and substance use prevention. The proposed research and career development plan build directly on my prior experiences to provide greater knowledge and skills necessary to conduct innovative investigations of dynamic person-environment interactions underlying substance use risk with GEMA and RTM methodologies and to develop a novel just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI) to reduce substance use in young adults enrolled in drug treatment court (DTC). Specific Aim 1 will (a) identify momentary relationships between daily stressors, affect, and alcohol use in a similarly vulnerable sample of homeless adults (N=77) that completed up to 5 daily GEMAs for 28 days and (b) test the associations between momentary geographic correlates of alcohol use and activity spaces on health-risk behaviors by combining GEMA data with RTM. Specific Aim 2 will collect GEMA data among a sample of young adults aged 18-25 enrolled in DTC to identify intervention targets for a future JITAI. Specific Aim 3 will develop and pilot test a novel smartphone-based JITAI to reduce substance use in young adults aged 18-25 enrolled in DTC. My mentorship team is well suited to facilitate the research and career development plan, with combined expertise in SUDs in vulnerable populations, GEMA analysis and design, RTM, and JITAI implementation and design.