My overarching career goal is to be in a research-oriented academic setting with a research program focused on the linkages between anxiety and substance use among youth, with a specific focus on adolescents at risk for these outcomes by virtue of traumatic event exposure, and the application of this information to the development of novel, empirically, and theoretically-driven intervention and prevention programs. Based on these goals, I aim to obtain training in (1) developmentally-relevant risk factors, comorbidity, assessment tools, and research programs related to traumatic event exposure among youth;(2) developmentally-relevant risk factors, comorbidity, assessment tools, and sophisticated research programs related to substance use among youth;and (3) the development, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of intervention and prevention programs designed to target youth. The proposed study utilizes a convergence of sophisticated laboratory-based procedures to examine theoretically-relevant mechanisms that may underlie alcohol use among youth who have been exposed to a traumatic event. Specifically, the current study will evaluate whether the trauma-relevant cue of bodily arousal results in an increased desire to drink among trauma-exposed (n = 60), as compared to non-exposed (n = 60), adolescents randomly assigned to either a voluntary hyperventilation challenge or a control condition. Specific study hypotheses are as follows: (1) main effects of group and condition are expected to be qualified by a significant interaction wherein the greatest increase in desire to drink will be observed among trauma-exposed youth following the voluntary hyperventilation challenge, and (2) among participants exposed to the voluntary hyperventilation, coping-related drinking motives will mediate the relation between group (trauma;no-trauma) and increased desire to drink following the challenge. The current project will lay the foundation for a longitudinal test of the study hypotheses, and, given support for the hypotheses, help to establish responding to trauma-relevant cues as a key intervention target in terms of alcohol use among youth at risk by virtue of traumatic event exposure. As such, this project, in concert with the proposed training plan, will provide an excellent springboard for developing prevention- oriented work in this area. The investigation is both significant and clinically important in that it seeks to better understand risk factor processes related to alcohol use, trauma exposure, and their co-morbidity;all of which represent critical public health concerns.
| Kearns, Nathan T; Villarreal, Deyaun; Cloutier, Renee M et al. (2018) Perceived control of anxiety as a moderator in the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and problematic alcohol use among adolescents. J Adolesc 63:41-50 |
| Cloutier, Renee M; Schuler, Keke L; Kearns, Nathan et al. (2018) Posttraumatic stress severity is associated with coping motives for alcohol use among in-patient and community recruited adolescents. Anxiety Stress Coping 31:500-513 |
| Cloutier, Renee M; Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Mischel, Emily R (2016) An Examination of Social Anxiety in Marijuana and Cigarette Use Motives Among Adolescents. Subst Use Misuse 51:408-18 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Ham, Lindsay S; Cloutier, Renee M et al. (2016) Social anxiety, disengagement coping, and alcohol-use behaviors among adolescents. Anxiety Stress Coping 29:432-46 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Cloutier, Renee M; Zamboanga, Byron L et al. (2015) A laboratory-based test of the relation between adolescent alcohol use and panic-relevant responding. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 23:303-13 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Leen-Feldner, Ellen W; Knapp, Ashley A et al. (2012) Alcohol use history and panic-relevant responding among adolescents: a test using a voluntary hyperventilation challenge. Psychol Addict Behav 26:683-692 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Leen-Feldner, Ellen W; Badour, Christal L et al. (2011) Anxiety Psychopathology and Alcohol Use among Adolescents: A Critical Review of the Empirical Literature and Recommendations for Future Research. J Exp Psychopathol 2:318-353 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Leen-Feldner, Ellen W; Babson, Kimberly A et al. (2011) Elevated social anxiety among early maturing girls. Dev Psychol 47:1133-40 |
| Blumenthal, Heidemarie; Leen-Feldner, Ellen W; Frala, Jamie L et al. (2010) Social anxiety and motives for alcohol use among adolescents. Psychol Addict Behav 24:529-34 |
