Kathryn Sabella, PhD, iSPARC Researcher and Director of the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research awarded an R03 grant from NIAAA
Date Posted: Monday, September 29, 2025
We are thrilled to share that Dr. Kathryn Sabella, assistant professor of psychiatry and Director of the Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research, has been awarded an R03 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). R03 is a highly competitive grant that provides support for small-scale research projects that can be completed in a short period of time with limited resources.
Over the last several decades, rates of excessive alcohol use among women (i.e., binge drinking, heavy episodic drinking) have been increasing faster than among men. Alcohol related disease and death are also increasing among women, raising concerns among health professionals, policy makers, and even the White House. Trajectories of binge drinking in young adulthood have also shifted. Women are steadily and significantly increasing their alcohol use into their 30s and 40s, but men’s alcohol use either decreases or remains stable as they age.
Dr. Sabella’s project, An Investigation of Sex Differences in Excessive Alcohol Use in Young Adulthood and Middle Age: Characterizing the Influence of Multiple Social Roles, Stress, and Poor Mental Health, is a secondary data analysis of two groups of data of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to assess sex differences in excessive alcohol use (e.g., binge drinking, frequency of drinking, and heavy drinking) in young adulthood (ages 24-32) and early middle-age (ages 33-43). Results of this research will increase our understanding of pathways to excessive alcohol use in young adulthood and early middle age and how those pathways differ by sex, exposing potential targets of psychosocial interventions that can reduce excessive drinking among middle-aged women and associated negative consequences (e.g., alcohol-associated disease, deaths, and familial impacts).
As a woman in recovery from alcohol use disorder, this project was very much motivated by her own personal recovery journey and the women she has met along the way. Dr. Sabella considers this award a “passion project” and an intersection of her personal and professional experiences, including her sociological training, and hopes this award launches a research agenda in this area.
Please join us in congratulating Kathryn on this exciting achievement!
