Marsha Smith, a 2023 graduate of the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England, has written and published a dissertation titled When The Bough Breaks: Alcohol Misuse Among Jamaican Young Adults.
The prevalence of alcohol misuse in Jamaica, the British West Indies, continues to cause adverse health and social causes and implications. In this study, Smith used an ecological systems model to conceptualize multilayered biological and social processes that interact to determine mental health. This study examined anxiety and depression, family structure, and perceived parental warmth and control as predictors of alcohol misuse among young adults ages 18 to 30 residing in Jamaica.
Smith’s research reveals that medical and mental health professionals should champion efforts to reduce the prevalence of alcohol misuse by advocating for the implementation of community-based interventions that provide education about the deleterious effects of alcohol misuse on physical and mental health.
Read Smith’s dissertation, When The Bough Breaks: Alcohol Misuse Among Jamaican Young Adults, here.
