My program of research focuses on the etiology and prevention of problematic alcohol use, with a particular emphasis on the emerging adulthood developmental period (i.e., ages 18 to 25 years).  An aspect of my research centers on the development and implementation of brief interventions to reduce heavy drinking.  I am also particularly interested in individual-level (e.g., cognitions, affective state, gender), social (e.g., social network), and environmental (e.g., context) determinants of substance use behavior.  Most recently, my research has expanded to include the examination of the link between alcohol use and other health behaviors including physical activity, dietary intake, and adverse weight-related behaviors (e.g., unhealthy weight control, body dissatisfaction, sedentary behavior).

Brief Interventions:

An aspect of my research centers on the development and implementation of brief interventions to reduce heavy drinking among emerging adults (i.e., ages 18 to 25 years). My earlier research on secondary prevention of alcohol use emerged out of my interest in understanding drinking behavior via cognitive mechanisms. Alcohol expectancies, or our beliefs regarding the effects of alcohol use, are modifiable with subsequent changes in drinking. Given the meditational role of expectancies, challenging these beliefs may hold promise as a theory-driven intervention strategy. Thus, to address a gap in the literature for empirically-supported interventions for college drinkers, I developed and tested a brief intervention program based on alcohol expectancy theory. The intervention represented a critical step in translating a theory-based intervention into a practical format that could be effectively implemented in a single session.

 My work regarding emerging adult drinking has expanded to include other at-risk populations, namely those without secondary education. Findings suggest that young adults who are noncollege-attenders may be at greater risk for alcohol-related problems in adulthood than their college-attending counterparts. In response to the need for additional research efforts targeting this understudied population, I conducted formative research to tailor and pilot test a secondary prevention program for nonstudents. Other investigations with this at-risk target population have focused on various social-cognitive etiological factors contributing to their alcohol use. Among these studies, we examined salient alcohol-related beliefs in predicting differential drinking contexts as well as normative drinking perceptions and drinking motivations. Other studies from my work supported the role of social or peer factors in nonstudent drinking, showing that a sizeable portion of their network members are “drinking buddies” and this was directly associated with their perceived peer approval of drinking.

Selected Publications:

  • Dunn, M. E., Lau H. C., & Cruz, I. (2000). Changes in activation of alcohol expectancies in memory in relation to changes in alcohol use after in an expectancy challenge program. Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology, 8, 566-575.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Dunn, M. E. (2008). Evaluation of a single-session expectancy challenge intervention to reduce alcohol use among college students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 22, 169-175.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Collins, R. L. (2011). Social networks and alcohol use among nonstudent emerging adults: A preliminary study. Addictive Behaviors, 36, 47-54
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Linden-Carmichael, A. N., Hequembourg, A., & Pribesh, S. (2016). Motivations and consequences of alcohol use among heavy drinking nonstudent emerging adults.  Journal of Adolescent Research.  Advance online publication.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., Stamates, A., & Linden-Carmichael, A. N. (2016). A latent profile analysis of daily alcohol use by nonstudent emerging adults.  Addictive Behaviors.  Advance online publication.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., Stamates, A., & Linden-Carmichael, A. N. (2016). Alcohol use variability in a community-based sample of nonstudent emerging adult heavy drinkers.  American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.  Advance online publication.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., Linden-Carmichael, A. N., & Stamates, A. (2016). Differences in weekday versus weekend drinking among nonstudent emerging adults.  Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 24, 100-109.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., & Stamates, A. (2018). A randomized trial of a personalized feedback intervention for nonstudent emerging adult at-risk drinkers. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 42, 781-794. 
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., Linden-Carmichael, A., & Stamates, A. (2018). Mediators and moderators of a personalized feedback alcohol intervention. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 42, 1756-1768.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Linden-Carmichael, A. N., Stamates, A. L., Preonas, P., & Braitman, A. L. (2019). The influence of a brief alcohol intervention on alcohol use trajectories in nonstudent emerging adult drinkers. Substance Use and Misuse, 54, 2025-2032.
  • Lau-Barraco, C. & Linden-Carmichael, A. N. (2019). A daily diary study of drinking and non-drinking days among nonstudent emerging adults. Substance Use & Misuse, 54, 31-38.

Cognitive and Motivational Determinants of Addictive Behavior:

Another aspect of my program of research has focused on cognitive determinants of addictive behavior with the general aim of addressing how and when alcohol expectancies influence behavior. We have demonstrated the effects of environmental contextual factors on the activation of alcohol cognitions in memory and consequent impact on immediate alcohol consumption. We have also examined dose-related alcohol expectancy processes in memory and found that anticipation of a high or low dose of alcohol resulted in different patterns of memory activation. My interest in understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying substance use has extended to particularly risky beverages, including caffeinated alcoholic beverages (CAB). We conducted a comprehensive review detailing the negative consequences associated with CAB use. We also investigated, in a series of studies, patterns of CAB use and the correlates of such drinking patterns, including caffeine and alcohol-related outcome expectancies, as to identify potential targets for future intervention efforts.

Selected Publications:

  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Dunn, M. E. (2009). Environmental context effects on alcohol cognitions and immediate alcohol consumption. Addiction Research & Theory, 17, 306-314.
  • Read, J. P., Lau-Barraco, C., Dunn, M. E., & Borsari, B. (2009). Projected alcohol dose influences on the activation of alcohol expectancies in college drinkers. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 33, 1265-1277.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Milletich, R. J., & Linden, A. N. (2014). Caffeinated alcohol consumption profiles and associations with use severity and outcome expectancies. Addictive Behaviors, 39, 308-315.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Linden, A. N. (2014). Caffeinated alcohol use and expectancies for caffeine versus alcohol. Substance Use and Misuse, 49, 1241-1249.
  • Linden, A. N., Lau-Barraco, C., & Milletich, R. J. (2014).  Protective behavioral strategies, alcohol expectancies, and drinking motives in a model of college student drinking behavior.  Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 28, 952-959.
  • Linden-Carmichael, A. N., Lau-Barraco, C., & Stamates, A. L. (2015). Testing a model of caffeinated alcohol-specific expectancies. Addictive Behaviors, 47, 38-41.
  • Linden-Carmichael, A. N., & Lau-Barraco, C. (2017). Daily conformity drinking motivations are associated with increased odds of consuming alcohol mixed with energy drinks. Addictive Behaviors, 79, 102-106. PMCID: PMC5807180.
  • Stamates, A. L., Linden-Carmichael, A. N., Preonas, P. D., & Lau-Barraco, C. (2019). Testing daily associations between impulsivity, affect, and alcohol use outcomes: A pilot study. Addiction Research & Theory, 27, 242-248.

 Social and Contextual Factors:

My research has contributed to understanding the social and contextual factors associated with substance use. Most recently, some my work has focused on the impact of one’s social network on personal alcohol involvement. These studies added to our knowledge of peer influence on drinking by examining the impact of particular social network characteristics and specific peers that may promote risky drinking. In particular, we found support for associations between certain network characteristics (e.g., network drinking, presence of “drinking buddies”) and personal drinking. Previous research suggests that the influence of peers may rest not necessarily on the drinking habits of the person’s overall network but on particular peers, such as “drinking buddies”. We conducted research to understand conditions under which drinking buddies may be particularly influential and what mediates the impact of drinking buddies on drinking outcomes. Our findings support a socialization view of peer influence such that specific drinking peers influence our cognitions regarding alcohol use and that in turns predicts drinking behavior.

Selected Publications:

  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Collins, R. L. (2011). Social networks and alcohol use among nonstudent emerging adults: A preliminary study. Addictive Behaviors, 36, 47-54.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Braitman, A. L., Leonard, K. E., & Padilla, M. (2012). Drinking buddies and their prospective influence on alcohol use: Alcohol expectancies as a causal pathway. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 26, 747-758.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., & Linden, A. (2014). Drinking buddies: Do they matter when it comes to emerging adult drinking? Addiction Research & Theory, 22, 57-67.
  • Lau-Barraco, C., Linden-Carmichael, A. N., Braitman, A. L., & Stamates, A. L. (2016). Identifying patterns of situational antecedents to heavy drinking among college students.  Addiction Research & Theory. 
  • Stamates, A. L., & Lau-Barraco, C. (2017). Environmental context effects on craving among consumers of caffeinated alcohol beverages: Associations with aspects of impulsivity. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 25, 503-511.
  • Linden-Carmichael, A. N., & Lau-Barraco, C. (2017). Alcohol mixed with energy drinks: Daily context of use. Alcoholism: Experimental and Clinical Research, 41, 863-869. PMCID: PMC5391838.