Office: 2103R Cole Field House
E-mail: ereynolds@psyc.umd.edu
Work Phone: 301-405-8899
Curriculum Vitae
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Elizabeth Keats Reynolds Office: 2103R Cole Field House E-mail: ereynolds@psyc.umd.edu Work Phone: 301-405-8899 Curriculum Vitae |
| Bio |
Background Information
I am a fifth year graduate student in clinical psychology. I received my BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2004. As an undergraduate, I worked on a study designed to examine the effectiveness of brief alcohol interventions administered in the Psychiatric Emergency Service. After graduating, I worked for a year as a research assistant at the NYU Child Study Center in the Institute for Prevention Science. I assisted with a prevention program involving public schools and communities to promote social and academic competence and prevent conduct problems in preschoolers living in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Research Interests
My research interests focus on the social-contextual and self-regulatory (e.g., impulsivity, distress tolerance) factors associated with the development and maintenance of substance use and related risk taking behaviors (e.g., risky sexual behavior) with the purpose of translating this knowledge into effective prevention and intervention programs. My work in graduate school began with a project (for which I received a NRSA) focused on utilizing the Social Action Theory to examine potential risk factors (including impulsivity, affect, and social-contextual) in the relationship between gender and crack/cocaine drug use. An important part of this study was characterizing the social context in which crack/cocaine use occurs. I used an interview to assesses use with and by one's romantic partner, family, friends, and neighbors. The high correlaion between one's crack/cocaine use and the use by and with others in one's social network enhanced my interest in the role of the social context . Building on this interest, for my dissertation, I am conducting an analogue study of peer influence on risk behavior engagement in older adolescents. In understanding the role of peers in risk behavior engagement, it has been uncertain whether a situational effect takes place whereby the presence of the peers and/or their influence in that moment is the key. And further, if a situational effect is the cause, whether it is the presence of peers alone or a direct influence process (i.e., a peer encourages a behavior) that can lead to increased risk behavior. Thus, using a behavioral risk task as the outcome measure, my dissertation study aims to understand whether older adolescents act in a riskier manner in the presence of peers and further whether peer presence alone influences risk behavior or whether a direct influence process (e.g., peer encouragement of risk behavior) is necessary. In line with these interests, I have acted as the project director of Dr. Lejuez's NIDA grant testing the utility of behavioral measures in prospectively predicting (across 5 year) adolescent HIV-relevant risk behaviors. In addition, I took a leadership role developing and implementing a behavioral activation intervention targeting adjustment and reduced problem behavior engagement for incoming college freshman. This year, I will be working as a therapist on two treatment studies being conducted at Salvation Army Harbor Light Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Center. These include a group smoking cessation treatment for mildly depressed smokers and a novel treatment aimed at reducing premature drop-out, relapse, and high risk sexual behavior among heroin users with high anxiety sensitivity. .
Publications
Tull, M.T., Trotman, A., Duplinsky, M.S., Reynolds, E.K., Daughters, S.B., Potenza, M.N., & Lejuez, C.W. (in press). The effect of posttraumatic stress disorder on risk-taking propensity among crack/cocaine users in residential substance abuse treatment. Depression and Anxiety.