Neurobehavioral Determinants of Health Risk Behaviors: From Adolescence to Young Adulthood (PI: Dr. Jungmeen Kim-Spoon) --Data collection currently ongoing

 

This study is a continuation of the Neurobehavioral Determinants of Adolescent Risk Decision Making and Health Risk Behaviors in collaboration with Dr. Brooks Kings-Casas's lab (http://research.vtc.vt.edu/employees/brooks-king-casas/) and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The purpose of the study is to examine dynamic interactions between developmental trajectories of neural mechanisms that predict health risk behaviors in young adulthood and contextual influences on these mechanisms.

 

Neurobehavioral Determinants of Adolescent Risk Decision Making and Health Risk Behaviors (PI: Dr. Jungmeen Kim-Spoon) --Data analysis and scientific reports actively ongoing

 

Recent research in developmental neuroscience suggests that risk-taking in adolescence may be derived from differing developmental trajectories of two distinct neural systems that regulate risky decisions: (i) early maturation of a reward system that biases decisions toward high-reward options, combined with (ii) late maturation of a cognitive control system that biases decisions away from options with potential negative consequences. Yet, we know very little about how reward and control neural systems develop and jointly contribute to differential vulnerability to poor decision-making that leads to adverse health outcomes. In collaboration with Dr. Brooks Kings-Casas's lab (http://research.vtc.vt.edu/employees/brooks-king-casas/) and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), we are conducting a longitudinal study to examine how individual differences in developmental trajectories of reward/risk sensitivity and cognitive control are related to the development of adolescent health risk behaviors.

 

 

Youths' healthy development study: Longitudinal study of religiousness as a protective mechanism for adolescent health risk behaviors (PI: Dr. Jungmeen Kim-Spoon) --Data available for scientific reports

 

This is a 3-wave longitudinal study of adolescents that was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the department of psychology. The goal of this study is to identify personality and social relationship factors that may prevent adolescents from developing psychopathology and unhealthy behaviors, thus eventually promoting adolescents' healthy physical and psychological development. In collaboration with Dr. Michael McCullough at University of Miami, we have studied how adolescent religiousness and spirituality influence self-regulation development, psychological maladjustment (such as depressive symptoms and anxiety), and health-risk behaviors (such as smoking, drinking, and other substance use).

 

 

Risk and protective processes in child maltreatment (PI: Dr. Jungmeen Kim-Spoon) --Data available for scientific reports

 

This is a longitudinal study of maltreated school-age children that was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) when Dr. Kim-Spoon was working with identifying emotional processes (e.g., reactivity and emotion regulation), personality processes (e.g., ego-control and ego-resilience), and self-system processes (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived competence, and self-esteem) that may ameliorate the negative effects of child maltreatment on the development of psychopathology.

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