Candidate ? Immediate and Long-Term Career Goals: Jung Yeon Lee, Ph.D., has a strong background in statistics and behavioral science, as well as basic and translational research. Her overarching career goal is to become an independent academic research scientist working at the interface between substance use, psychopathology, cultural factors, intervention research, and statistics. To achieve this long term goal, Dr. Lee plans to extend her research area into the social sciences through a plan for acquiring epidemiological expertise, and developing innovative statistical techniques to deal with large longitudinal datasets. Environment ? Key Elements of the Research Career Development Plan: Dr. Lee is currently a junior research member in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine. Under the guidance of her mentoring team (Drs. J.S. Brook, S.J. Finch, D.W. Brook), collaborators (Drs. M. Galanter, J. Endicott, K. Pahl, E. Obasi, M. De La Rosa), she will enter a rigorous training program consisting of: 1) formal didactic training via graduate courses (Departments of Environmental Medicine, Psychiatry, and Psychology); 2) research training via attending seminars and meetings; 3) contribution to journal clubs and group meetings in the research groups of the mentors and collaborators; 4) participation in national international conferences and symposia; and 5) participation in training courses in the responsible conduct of research. Research Project: This revised grant application, based on a 20-year longitudinal study of African Americans and Puerto Ricans, is designed to 1) identify the predictors and consequences (e.g., psychiatric disorders) of triple comorbid trajectories of substance use; 2) investigate the pathways from cultural factors and parent-child attachment in adolescence to substance use in adulthood; and 3) inform intervention research to be more effective for African American and Puerto Rican adolescents and adults. In addition, the research will serve as the foundation for a future study to be written in years 4 and 5 on examining the differences and/or similarities in the patterns of substance use as well as adverse outcomes from substance use between monoracial and biracial Black/Hispanic individuals. This research is in response to NIDAs call for studies of African American and Hispanic individuals. Of importance, the objectives of my career development plan include the following: 1) become an expert in using advanced analytic techniques such as growth mixture modeling, structural equation modeling, and propensity score analysis; 2) acquire expertise in cultural factors and substance use disorders; 3) develop interdisciplinary collaborations; 4) disseminate research findings; and 5) grant development. Relevance: The findings will lead to a greater understanding of the relationships between triple comorbid trajectories of substance use and 1) psychological functioning in adolescence as predictors and 2) in adulthood as consequences. The results will also lead to further knowledge of the risk and protective factors of substance use. These findings would contribute to innovative prevention and treatment programs.
The significance of the proposed study lies in its potential to: a) identify the predictors and consequences of triple trajectories of comorbid substance use; b) examine the developmental pathways to substance use; and c) inform intervention research. This investigation employs state-of-the-art analytic methods and has the possibility to provide significant knowledge regarding the patterns and concomitants of substance use. Such knowledge has important implications for the type and timing of innovative diagnostic tests, treatments, and public health.
