Orange Alert

Aesoon Park

Aesoon Park

Aesoon Park

Professor, and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology

CONTACT

Psychology
452 Marley Educational Building
Email: aepark@syr.edu

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (minor in Psychological Statistics), University of Missouri-Columbia
  • Predoctoral Clinical Internship, Yale University School of Medicine
  • M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

Social/Academic Links

Courses

  • PSY252, Statistical Methods II, Undergraduate Course
  • PSY780, Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling, Graduate Course

Licensure

Licensed Psychologist (Class II) in South Korea

Graduate Mentees

Jueun Kim, Ph.D. in 2017, Assistant Professor (tenure-track) of Psychology at Chungnam National University, South Korea

Michelle J. Zaso, Ph.D. in 2019, Assistant Professor (tenure-track) of Psychology at Syracuse University

Jessica M. Desalu, Ph.D. in 2019, Staff Clinician at the University Counseling Service, Howard University

Patricia A. Goodhines, Ph.D. in 2022, Assistant Professor (tenure-track) of Psychology at the University of Maine

Jin C. Zhao, M.S., 2017–Present, Predoctoral intern, Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology at Boston University

Amelia V. Wedel, M.S., 2019–Present, Predoctoral intern, Charleston Consortium Internship

Fatima Dobani, M.S., 2019–Present

Elizabeth P. Cabot, M.A., 2020–Present

Emma S. Schillinger, B.A., 2021–Present

Research Interests

My programmatic research focuses on high-risk health behavior (with a focus on alcohol use/misuse) as a developmental phenomenon. Applying dynamic interactionism to alcohol use/misuse, my research seeks to characterize mechanisms by which individual factors and environmental factors influence each other and determine the course of alcohol use/misuse across the lifespan. Over the past decade, my alcohol research has extended into the realm of health disparities, with a particular emphasis on racially salient risk and protective psychosocial mechanisms that underlie disparities in alcohol use/misuse and the concurrent development of other health risk behaviors among adolescents and young adults. The ultimate goal of my research program is to promote a greater understanding of these risk pathways in order to inform the development of targeted prevention strategies that reduce problematic alcohol use among high-risk populations. such as health disparity populations.

My research is based on a multidisciplinary approach and rigorous analytic techniques. My multidisciplinary research meets the growing need to account for not only psychological but also genetic and other biological factors to advance our understanding of psychopathology. My also research involves the application of advanced statistical methods (e.g., structural equation modeling, path analyses, multilevel modeling) to longitudinal studies of diverse populations across wide-ranging developmental stages to characterize the complex person-environment interplay that occurs over time.

Taking the multidisciplinary developmental approach, my research program has characterized risk pathways of the development and escalation of alcohol use/misuse involving (1) Health Disparities in Alcohol Use/Misuse and Co-Occurring Health-Risk Behaviors, and (2) Risk Pathways Underlying Adolescent and Young Adult Alcohol Use/Misuse and Co-Occurring Health-Risk Behaviors. See representative publications for each area below.

Current Research Projects

Project Teen II, Role = Principal Investigator (co-investigators = Drs. Les Gellis, Stephen Maisto, and Lisa Fucito), funded by NIAAA R01 AA027677, NIAAA, 8/15/2019 – 07/30/2024. This project aims to test both developmental and proximal sleep-alcohol associations across diverse racial groups of youth and examine risk pathways involving social adversity exposures and stress-dysregulation in these associations over time. This project is in the data collection phase.

Project Teen I, Role = Principal Investigator (co-investigator = Dr. Stephen Maisto, Scientific advisors = Drs. Peter Vanable, Craig Ewart, John Belote, and Stephen Glatt), funded by NIAAA R15 AA022496, 09/04/2014 – 08/31/2019NCE. This project aims to identify the risk pathways involving genetic and psychosocial-environmental risk factors of escalations in alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences and other high-risk health behaviors among high school students in a racially diverse urban school district. A total of 414 participant data were collected for two time points, and we are currently doing data analyses for publications/presentations.

Summer Training in Alcohol and Health Research – Undergraduates (STAHR-U), Role = Program Director/Principal Investigator (co-investigators = Drs. Sarah Woolf-King, and Stephen Maisto), funded by NIAAA R25 AA029830, 3/15/2023 – 2/29/2028. This project aims to help meet the nation's need for a diverse pool of talented scientists by enhancing underrepresented undergraduate students' participation in alcohol and health research and facilitating their admission into graduate school through an eight-week summer research internship program.

Representative Publications

Student co-authors are underlined; please see my CV, SU experts page, Google Scholar page or ResearchGate page for a complete list of publications.

Health Disparities in Alcohol Use/Misuse and Co-Occurring Health-Risk Behaviors:

Dobani, F., Zaso, M. J., Desalu, J. M., & Park, A. (2023). Alcohol use in multiracial American youth compared to monoracial youth: A meta-analysis. Addiction. 2023 Aug 10. Online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1111/add.16310 PMID: 37563711

Desalu, J. M., Goodhines, P. A., & Park, A. (2021). Vicarious exposure to racial discrimination, racial identity, and alcohol-related outcomes among black young adults: An experimental approach. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. PMID: 33705156 DOI: 10.1037/adb0000707 PMCID: PMC8084893

Goodhines, P. A., Desalu, J. M., Zaso, M. J., Gellis, L. A., & Park, A. (2020). Sleep problems and drinking frequency among urban multiracial and monoracial adolescents: role of discrimination experiences and negative mood. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 49(10), 2109-2123. PMID: 32860577 DOI: 10.1007/s10964-020-01310-1

Desalu, J. M., Goodhines, P. A., & Park, A. (2019). Racial discrimination and alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences among black individuals: A meta-analytic review. Addiction, 114(6), 957-967. PMID: 30714661 PMCID: PMC6510626 DOI: 10.1111/add.14578

Desalu, J. M., Kim, J., Zaso, M. J., Corriders, S. R., Loury, J. A., Minter, M. L., & Park, A. (2019). Racial discrimination, binge drinking, and negative drinking consequences among black college students: Serial mediation by depressive symptoms and coping motives. Ethnicity & Health, 24(8), 874-888. PMID: 28931304 PMCID: PMC5862766 DOI: 10.1080/13557858.2017.1380170

Zaso, M. J., Goodhines, P. A., Wall, T. L., & Park, A. (2019). Meta-analysis on associations of alcohol metabolism genes with alcohol use disorder in East Asians. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 54(3), 216-224. PMID: 30834931 PMCID: PMC6516434 DOI: 10.1093/alcalc/agz011

Zhao, J, Goodhines, P. A., & Park, A. (2023). The intersection of neighborhood and race in urban adolescent health-risk behaviors. Journal of Community Psychology, 51(4), 1785-1802. PMID: 36434809 DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22963 PMCID: PMC10081941

Risk Pathways Underlying Adolescent and Young Adult Alcohol Use/Misuse and Co-Occurring Health-Risk Behaviors:

Miller, M. B., & Park, A. (2023). Bidirectional Associations between Sleep and Addiction across Populations: Introduction to the Special Issue. Addictive Behaviors. Sep;144:107722. Epub 2023 Apr 12. PMID: 37084566 DOI:10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107722 PMCID: PMC10461131

Goodhines, P. A., Gellis, L. A., Ansell, E. B., & Park, A. (2019). Cannabis and alcohol use for sleep aid: A daily diary investigation. Health Psychology, 38(11), 1036-1047. PMID: 31169378 PMCID: PMC6800769 DOI: 10.1037/hea0000765

Goodhines, P. A., Wedel, A., Dobani, F., Zaso, M. J., Gellis, L. A., & Park, A. (2022). Cannabis use for sleep aid among high school students: Concurrent and prospective associations with substance use and sleep problems. Addictive Behaviors. 2022 Jul 16;134:107427. Online ahead of print. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107427 . PMID: 35872526. PMCID: PMC9999445

Zaso, M. J., Park, A., Kim, J., Gellis, L. A., Kwon, H., & Maisto, S. A. (2016). The associations among prior drinking consequences, subjective evaluations, and subsequent alcohol outcomes. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30, 367-376. PMID: 27214171 PMCID: PMC4880416 DOI: 10.1037/adb0000166

Park, A., Kim, J., Gellis, L. A., Zaso, M. J., & Maisto, S. A. (2014). Short-term prospective effects of impulsivity traits on college heavy drinking: Mediation by positive and negative drinking consequences. Journal of American College Health, 62, 517–525. PMID: 24901736 DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2014.929579

Park, A., Sher, K. J., Wood, P. K., & Krull, J. L. (2009). Dual mechanisms underlying accentuation of risky drinking via fraternity/sorority affiliation: The role of personality, peer norms, and alcohol availability. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 241–255. PMID: 19413401 PMCID: PMC2742489 DOI: 10.1037/a0015126