• PhD, University of Rhode Island

I am interested in the etiology of and intervention for hazardous alcohol and other substance use. My most recent work has focused around two areas: (1) psychosocial determinants of problem substance use, particularly among young adults, and (2) the intersection of trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms with alcohol and other drugs.

My research on young adult drinking has examined both environmental and individual determinants of alcohol use utilizing laboratory and survey approaches. In particular, my research examines how individual-level factors such as gender, affective state, and alcohol cognitions (e.g., expectancies, motives) may account for differential responses to the social environment. We recently have begun an NIAAA-funded examination of geospatial risk for affect-driven substance use (R21 AA029279-01A1) to understand how alcohol cues in our daily environment may contribute to drinking risk.

In the area of the intersection of trauma, posttraumatic stress, and substance use, I have been funded by both federal (e.g., National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse) and private organizations to study complex associations among trauma, posttraumatic stress, and drinking. This includes longitudinal studies of associations between these two clinical phenomena, as well as laboratory-based studies of co-occurrence. Much of my recent work is focused on understanding the role of alcohol in a particular type of trauma, sexual assault. One line of work seeks to understand women’s developmental and contextual risk for alcohol-involved sexual assault, and the other is studying how friends can help prevent alcohol-involved assault risk (R01 AA016105; R34AA027046)

I also study the measurement and evaluation of negative consequences resulting from heavy drinking or problem cannabis use in college students. Along with my colleagues, I developed the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ) which assesses multiple domains of alcohol consequences. We also developed the Marijuana Consequence Questionnaire (MACQ), based on the YAACQ.

• Zaso, M.J., Troidl, I., & Read, J. P. (in press). What is the role of affective cognition in trauma and PTSD-related drinking? A systematic review. Clinical Psychological Science.
• Rodriguez, L., Shaw, R., Radomski, S., Blayney, J. A., & Read, J. P. (2023). Substance-involved trauma is associated with worse mental health outcomes among college students. Traumatology. 
• Cheesman, A.J., & Read, J.P. (2023). Prospective pathways from affect to drug outcomes: Refusal self-efficacy in the context of peer influences. Substance Use & Misuse, 58, 1587-1597.
• Blayney, J. A., Jenzer, T., Jaffe, A. E., Carroll, Q., & Read, J. P. (2022). Friends-based protective strategies and unwanted sexual experiences: A daily diary examination of first year college women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 46, 162-175. 
• Read, J. P., Egerton, G., Cheesman, A., & Steers, M. (2022). Classifying risky cannabis involvement using the Marijuana Consequences Questionnaire (MACQ). Addictive Behaviors, 129, 107236. 
• Shaw, R. J., Read, J. P., & Colder, C. R. (2022). Social goal orientation differentially influences exposure to interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma. Traumatology, 28, 138-148. 
• Jenzer, T., Egerton, G. A., & Read, J. P. (2021). Learning from drinking experiences in college: A test of reciprocal determinism with drinking refusal self-efficacy. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 35, 85.
• Shaw, R. J., & Read, J. P. (2021). The differential effects of verbal sexual coercion and forcible sexual assault on alcohol use and consequence trajectories in the first year of college. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 13, 835-846. 
• Zaso, M. J., Read, J. P., & Colder, C. R. (2021). Coping-motivated escalations in adolescent alcohol problems following early adversity. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 
• Jenzer, T., Meisel, S., Blayney, J. A., Colder, C. R., & Read, J. P. (2020). Reciprocal processes in trauma and coping: Bidirectional effects over a 4-year period. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 12, 207-218.
• Rodriguez, L., & Read, J. P. (2020). Momentary emotional responding and emotion regulation in PTSD-related drinking urge. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 28, 99–111. 
• Egerton, G., Radomski, S. A., & Read, J. P. (2019). Personality-based PTSD subtypes in young adults. Traumatology, 25, 235-241.
• Prince, M. A., Read, J. P., & Colder, C. R. (2019). Trajectories of college alcohol involvement and their associations with later alcohol use disorder symptoms. Prevention Science, 20, 741-752.
• Blayney, J. A., Jenzer, T., Read, J. P., Livingston, J. A., & Testa, M. (2018). Enlisting friends to reduce sexual victimization risk: “There's an app for that”­ but nobody uses it. Journal of American College Health, 66, 767-773.