Current Projects
BRANCH
Building Resilience and Nurturing Children's Health (BRANCH)
R01 DA055630-01
This study aims to work with rural families to understand how families and communities promote strength and resilience to protect their youth from the ways in which stress influences behavioral risk for addictive behaviors, such as substance use. Children must be between the ages of 6.5-8 years old.
Part 1: Family visit where participants (legal guardian and child) play games together and take surveys (1.5hr) and a visit to UGA for a 37 min MRI scan and surveys (2hr total visit). Participants will be asked for a saliva sample, to wear a sleep-tracking watch, and to track their mood daily on an app. (1-2 min)
Part 2: 18 months after Stage 1, a follow-up MRI scan and surveys (2hr total visit).
Part 3: 18 months after Stage 2, both participants will take an online survey (1hr) to wrap up.
ABCD
A Neuroecological Approach to Examining the Effects of Early Life Adversity on Adolescent Drug Use Vulnerabilities Using the ABCD Dataset
R01 DA058334-01A1
This NIH-funded study will analyze how childhood adversity influences adolescents' vulnerability to drug use, utilizing the ABCD data set. It will investigate how early life adversity (ELA) affects neurocognitive risk and drug use by examining individual differences in neuroregulatory systems that modulate emotion and behavioral regulation. The study will focus on the developmental changes in functional connectivity between emotion/salience and cognitive control networks, exploring how these changes lead to drug use vulnerabilities. Additionally, it will consider the moderating effects of family, peer, school, community, and sociocultural contexts on these neurocognitive processes, aiming to enhance developmental models and preventive interventions for drug addiction in adolescents.
We are not currently recruiting for this study.
DORRY
Development of Risk & Resilience Among Rural Youth
K01 DA045219
This 5-year NIDA-funded study (K01 DA045219) explores the neurobiological mechanisms between early adversity and substance use among rural adolescents. Our team is employing multi-level methods of data collection, including structural and functional MRI, self- and parent-report questionnaires on past experiences and behavior, videotaped and coded parent-child interactions, and stress physiology. The study is currently in its third and final wave of data collection and will continue for the next year.
We are not currently recruiting for this study.