This K01 award will provide specialized training in the skills necessary to conduct longitudinal research and to identify risk and protective factors in the development of alcohol use disorders in high-risk youth populations. The training plan will include an intensive study of alcohol use disorders (AUDs), longitudinal research and quantitative methods, and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which will be accomplished via four primary training mechanisms: 1) guided readings in each content area designed by mentors and consultants; 2) regular meetings with each consultant to discuss professional development, grantsmanship, training/career goals, and ongoing data analysis and manuscripts; and 3) a series of workshops and courses led by leading experts in the field and designed to address the training goals. The training plan will also be facilitated by a series of complimentary research aims, which will include a systematic evaluation of the concurrent, longitudinal, and bidirectional relationships between two central risk factors for the development of alcohol use disorders (AUDs): parent alcoholism and childhood ADHD. Moreover the proposed study will evaluate the role of offspring ADHD and family functioning in the intergenerational transmission of AUDs.
These aims will be examined using an original data collection project designed to examine the role of family functioning in ADHD families with alcoholic parents, and data from two ongoing longitudinal studies: the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS) conducted by Drs. Brooke Molina (AA11873) and William Pelham (DA12414), and the Berkeley study of preadolescent ADHD girls, conducted by Dr. Hinshaw (MH45064). Both of these studies are the largest of their kind, and include comprehensive, state-of-the-art assessment batteries administered in face-to-face interviews with the target and at least one custodial parent. Moreover, they both include extensive longitudinal follow-up assessments in adolescence and young adulthood. The results of the proposed research and the skills obtained via the proposed training plan will serve as a springboard for future R01 studies that will examine the role of parent and offspring psychopathology in family functioning and the intergenerational transmission of AUDs, with the ultimate purpose of identifying targets for AUD prevention and intervention programs.
