Project Status:

Active

Description:

Dr. Micalizzi’s multimethod, intensive longitudinal study will evaluate the associations between parental alcohol use (PAU), parent stress, parent-child interaction quality, and child externalizing disorder (EXT) symptoms during a 1-month period of child EXT treatment. The study will aim to examine the relationships between PAU, parent stress, and child EXT symptoms and to determine if parent-child interaction quality mediates these associations. Additionally, it will explore the feasibility and acceptability of integrating passive alcohol sensing technology into the treatment context. Participants will be recruited from the Children’s Partial Hospital Program (CPHP) at Bradley Hospital, which provides 4- to 8-week intensive outpatient treatment for children with severe EXT. Fifty children (ages 9-12) and their parents/guardians will complete a baseline laboratory session at intake, followed by 30 days of parent daily diary assessments and a 1-month follow-up.

Baseline assessments will include parent substance use, biomarkers of lifetime stress, parenting stress, and observed parent-child interaction quality. Daily diaries of parent stress and parent-child interaction quality will also be collected and utilized alongside data collected as part of standard CPHP procedures (e.g., parent and staff ratings of child EXT symptoms). Finally, at 1-month follow-up, parents will provide day-level data of substance use. A random subset of 10 parents will also wear alcohol biosensors during the study to assess the feasibility and acceptability of biosensors in this population, which is at risk for underreporting substance use. Dr. Micalizzi and her team hypothesize that greater PAU and stress will be associated with increased child EXT symptoms at baseline and daily, with greater variability in PAU and stress predicting more EXT over the follow-up period. They also expect parent-child interaction quality to mediate the effects of PAU and stress on EXT. Finally, they anticipate successfully demonstrating the feasibility of the wrist-worn alcohol sensor.

Mentors: 

Anthony Spirito, Ph.D., Brown University
Justin Parent, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island

Collaborators & Consultants:

Nancy Barnett, Ph.D., Brown University

Research Team:

Alexandria Capolino, M.S., Senior Research Assistant