B.S. University of Illinois 2003
M.A. Southern Illinois University 2007
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University 2010

Position/Grant/Award/etc.

• 2019–Present: Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington
• 2019-2020: Principal Investigator, Culturally Sensitive Trauma-Informed Care: Learning from Latino Families (American Psychological Foundation).
• 2017–2022: Principal Investigator, Gene-environment interplay underlying early adolescent substance use (NIDA/OBSSR Grant #K01DA042828)
• 2015–2019: Assistant Professor, School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University
• 2013–2015: NIMH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship, REACH Institute, Arizona State University
• 2011–2013: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Psychology Department, University of Leicester, UK
• 2009–2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Children and Families, University of Otago, NZ

Scholarly Interest

Dr. Elam's program of research examines adolescent and early adult development. His interests include substance use, such as alcohol, marijuana, and vaping, as well as mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and aggression. Much of his work examines how multiple individual factors (personality, genetics) and social factors (peers, parents) contribute to substance use and mental health over time. A new focus of his research examines disparities in these processes.

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Elam, K. K., Su, J., Aliev, F., Seo, D., Trevino, A., & Kutzner, J. (2023). Polygenic effects on individual rule breaking, peer rule breaking, and alcohol sips in Early Adolescence in the ABCD study. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.

Elam, K. K., Mun, C. J., & Ha, T. (2023). Coping strategies as mediating mechanisms between adolescent polysubstance use classes and adult alcohol and substance use disorders. Addictive Behaviors, 139, 107586.

Elam, K. K., Johnson, S. L., Ruof, A., Eisenberg, D., Rej, P., Sandler, I., & Wolchik, S. (2022). Examining the influence of adversity, family contexts, and a family-based intervention on parent and child telomere length. European Journal of Psychotraumatology.

Elam, K. K., Ha, T., Neale, Z., Aliev, F., Dick, D. & Lemery-Chalfant, K. (2021). Polygenic effects on alcohol use in African Americans and European Americans: Age varying associations from adolescence to adulthood. Scientific Reports, 11, 22425.

Elam, K. K., Sternberg, A., Waddell, J., Blake, A., & Chassin, L. (2020). Mother and father prescription opioid misuse, alcohol use disorder, and parent knowledge in pathways to adolescent alcohol use. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 1663-1673.

Elam, K. K., Chassin, L., & Pandika, D. (2018). Polygenic risk, family cohesion, and adolescent aggression in Mexican-American and European-American families: Developmental pathways to alcohol use. Development and Psychopathology, 30, 1715-1728.

Elam, K. K., A., Sandler, I., Wolchik, S., Tein, J., & Rogers (2019). Latent profiles of postdivorce parenting time, conflict and quality: Children’s adjustment associations. Journal of Family Psychology, 33, 499-510.

Elam, K. K., Clifford, S., Shaw, D., Wilson, M., & Lemery-Chalfant, K. (2019) Gene set enrichment analysis to create polygenic risk scores for childhood aggression: A developmental examination of aggression. Translational Psychiatry, 9, 212.

Elam, K. K., Clifford, S., Ruof, A., Shaw, D., Wilson, M. & Lemery-Chalfant, K. (2020). Genotype-environment correlation by intervention effects underlying middle childhood peer rejection and associations with adolescent marijuana use. Development and Psychopathology. Epub ahead of print.

Elam, K. K., Lemery-Chalfant, K., & Chassin, L. (accepted – in press). A gene-environment cascade theoretical framework of developmental psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Elam, K. K., Mun, CJ., Kutzner, J., & Ha, T. (accepted – in press). Polygenic risk for aggression predicts adult substance use disorder diagnoses via substance use offending in emerging adulthood and is moderated by a family-centered intervention. Behavior Genetics.

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