BIO
Dr. Jungeun Olivia Lee serves on the IAS Steering Committee & is a Co-Leader of the IAS Priority Populations & Health Equity research group/committee alongside IAS Member, Dr. Eric Pedersen. This group researches the social determinants of health, health disparities and other confounding factors contributing to our nation’s addiction crisis is the focus of this research group – a true collaboration amongst a large number of disciplines. She has also participated as a judge at IAS’s Annual Early Career Addiction Science Showcase (ECASS).
Dr. Lee joined the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work in 2014. Before this, she was a research scientist at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work and Social Development Research Group, after receiving her doctoral degree in 2009. Her research focuses on the interconnections among substance use, mental health, socioeconomic adversities, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) across the life course, exploring how social and contextual risks influence these dynamics. ACEs are highly correlated with socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood and predictive of SES, substance use, and mental health in adulthood. Her work integrates three distinct areas—behavioral health, socioeconomic adversities, and ACEs—into four interconnected topics: socioeconomic inequalities in substance use and mental health, socioeconomic adversities and resilience across generations, the life course etiology of substance use, and the impact of ACEs (as it correlates to SES). She has contributed to numerous grants from agencies such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Lee serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research and BMC Public Health, and is an academic advisory board member for the Pacific Southwest region of the Prevention Technology Transfer Center Network. She is also a member of the Society for Social Work and Research and the Society for Prevention Research.
PUBLICATIONS
Unemployment And Substance Use Problems Among Young Adults: Does Childhood Low Socioeconomic Status Exacerbate The Effect? | Social Science & Medicine, 143, 36–44
Lee, J. O., Hill, K. G., Hartigan, L.* A., Boden, J. M., Guttmannova, K., Kosterman, R., Bailey, J., & Catalano, R. F.
The current study tested whether unemployment predicted young adults’ heavy episodic drinking, cigarette smoking, and cannabis use after taking into account individual development in substance use. Furthermore, building on the life course perspective, this study examined whether the link between unemployment and substance use among young adults differed for those who experienced low childhood SES compared to those who did not. Data for the present study came from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP), a panel study examining a broad range of developmental outcomes from ages 10 to 33.
* student collaborators
Developmental pathways from parental socioeconomic status to adolescent substance use: Alternative and complementary reinforcement | Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(2), 334-348
Lee, J.O., Cho, J., Yoon*, Y., Bello*, M.S., Khoddam, R., Leventhal, A.M.
Although lower socioeconomic status has been linked to increased youth substance use, much less research has determined potential mechanisms explaining the association. The current longitudinal study tested whether alternative (i.e., pleasure gained from activities without any concurrent use of substances) and complementary (i.e., pleasure gained from activities in tandem with substance use) reinforcement mediate the link between lower socioeconomic status and youth substance use. Further, we tested whether alternative and complementary reinforcement and youth substance use gradually unfold over time and then intersect with one another in a cascading manner. Potential sex differences are also examined.
* student collaborators
Developmental inflection point for the effect of maternal childhood adversity on children’s mental health from childhood to adolescence: Time-varying effect of gender differences | Development and Psychopathology
Lee, J.O, Duan, L., Lee*, W.J., Rose, J., Oxford, M. L., & Cederbaum, J.A.
Childhood adversities have a well-established dose-response relationship with later mental health. However, less attention has been given to intergenerational influences. Further, it is unknown how intergenerational influences intersect with children’s developmental stages and gender. The current study examined whether a developmental inflection point exists when the intergenerational influences of childhood adversities gain salience and explored differences by children’s gender. Data were from the Young Women and Child Development Study (n = 361). Time-varying effect models (TVEMs) and moderation TVEMs by child’s gender were evaluated. Our findings reveal that ages 5 to 8, the period of transition into primary schools, may represent a developmental inflection point when the intergenerational influences of maternal childhood adversity start emerging substantially. The results from gender interaction TVEMs reveal that maternal childhood adversity was a statistically significant predictor of internalizing problems until age 11, regardless of child’s gender, and remained statistically significant for girls’ internalizing problems until age 16.7. For externalizing problems, maternal childhood adversity was a statistically significant predictor until age 13, regardless of gender.
EMAIL: lee363@usc.edu