# Informing treatment adaptation based on the interplay between behavioral undercontrol and context: an event-level study

> **NIH NIH K01** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $180,749

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Underage drinking in the United States is a serious health concern, with a multifaceted etiology and wide-
ranging implications including risky situations (motor vehicle accidents, risky sex, and violence) and alcohol
use disorder (adolescents have the highest rate of alcohol use disorder onset). Both environmental and
individual characteristics are implicated in the development of adolescent drinking behavior. At the
environmental level, social, locational, and situational context characteristics influence adolescent patterns of
drinking. At the individual level, one of the strongest individual predictors of underage drinking is behavioral
undercontrol (BU; e.g. impulsivity, sensation seeking). Interventions that target differences in BU successfully
delay onset and reduce quantity of alcohol use in underage drinkers. However, research has shown that
context characteristics, and differences in BU, meaningfully change drinking behavior. Hence, there is an
opportunity to investigate how context effects differ by sex and are moderated by BU to produce heavy
episodic drinking at the event level; by conducting time-sensitive research investigating how BU predicts self-
selection into drinking contexts, and how BU subsequently moderates the impact of those contexts. This K01
proposal, titled “Informing treatment adaptation using fine-grained context data in adolescent alcohol use”
proposes to collect fine-grained data that could inform context-sensitive interventions, by informing when,
where, and with whom to intervene, along with adaptation to sex- or context-specific situations. Equal numbers
of male and female adolescents (N = 120, ages 15-17 years) who report at least one heavy drinking episode in
the past two weeks, will be recruited for a 17-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) survey preceded
by a single laboratory session. The laboratory session will include self-report and behavioral assessments of
BU as well as environmental factors. The EMA will include random user prompts as well as self-initiated
reports assessing alcohol use, social, locational, and situational context characteristics, along with
assessments of BU prior to, and after, alcohol use. The project has three specific research aims: 1) Examine
whether context mediates the effect of BU on adolescent drinking. 2) Examine whether BU moderates the role
of context in predicting adolescent drinking. 3) Examine how drinking impacts impulsivity, and how this impact
predicts alcohol consequences. By informing context-sensitive interventions based on findings, we will
capitalize on technology that allows for context-appropriate prompts (“Just-in-time” interventions). The
associated training plan will provide the candidate with the ability to independently conduct EMA surveys
among adolescents and aid in securing future funding, becoming a substantive expert on event-level context
characteristics and individual traits using fine-grained assessment tools, and informin...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10474362
- **Project number:** 5K01AA026335-05
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Tim Janssen
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $180,749
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10474362

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10474362, Informing treatment adaptation based on the interplay between behavioral undercontrol and context: an event-level study (5K01AA026335-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10474362. Licensed CC0.

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