Jessica E. Salvatore, Ph.D.
  • Home
  • Education + Employment
  • Research
  • Teaching + Service
  • Contact
  • Sal-utations (Blog)
research

Research Interests Overview

The current focus of my work is on how close relationship processes and substance misuse interface across development, particularly in the high-risk emerging adulthood period. I take a genetically informed perspective in order to understand how genetic predispositions for substance misuse influence relationship outcomes (i.e., gene-environment correlation), and the circumstances under which relationship factors moderate substance-related genetic predispositions (i.e., gene-environment interaction). The larger goal of this work is to understand how genetic and relationship factors predict trajectories of substance misuse to better inform personalized interventions for individuals who are at-risk.

Research Support
Junior Investigator Award (PI: J. Salvatore), Genetics and Human Agency Initiative (Templeton Foundation Award, administered as a subcontract through the University of Virginia), 2016-2017
Mentored Research Scientist Award (K01AA024152; PI: J.Salvatore), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2016-2021  *More information in VCU News article
VCU Postdoctoral Association Small Grants Awardee (PI: J. Salvatore), 2013-2014
Postdoctoral Trainee (F32AA022269; PI: J. Salvatore), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2013-2015
Postdoctoral Trainee (T32; PI: M. Neale), National Institute of Mental Health, 2012
Predoctoral Trainee (T31; PI: M. Gunnar), National Institute of Mental Health, 2009-2011
Graduate School Fellow, University of Minnesota, 2006-2007

Honors and Awards

Loan Repayment Program Awardee, National Institutes of Health, 2014-2017
Early Career Investigator Program (Travel Awardee), International Society of Psychiatric Genetics, 2014
Junior Investigator Travel Award, Research Society on Alcoholism, 2013
Travel Awardee, VCU Postdoctoral Association, 2013
GradSEHD Travel Award, University of Minnesota, 2011, 2010, 2008
SRCD Travel Awardee, Society for Research in Child Development, 2011, 2009
GAPSA Travel Awardee, University of Minnesota, 2010, 2009
Phi Beta Kappa, Carleton College, 2006
President’s Student Research Award, Carleton College, 2006
Wingspread Fellow, Johnson Foundation, Racine, WI, 2004-2005
William H. Carleton Scholar, Carleton College, 2002

Peer-Reviewed Papers

Salvatore, J. E., Kuo, S. I., Steele, R., Simpson, J. A., & Collins, W. A. (2011). Recovering from conflict in romantic relationships: A developmental perspective. Psychological Science, 22(3), 376-383. doi: 10.1177/0956797610397055. PMCID: PMC3060296

Oriña, M. M., Collins, W. A., Simpson, J. A., Salvatore, J. E., Haydon, K.C., & Kim, J.S. (2011). Developmental and dyadic perspectives on commitment in adult romantic relationships. Psychological Science, 22(7), 908-915. doi: 10.1177/0956797611410573 PMCID: PMC3391597

Simpson, J. A., Collins, W. A., & Salvatore, J. E. (2011). The impact of early interpersonal experience on adult romantic relationship functioning: Recent findings from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(6), 355-359. doi: 10.1177/0963721411418468. PMCID: PMC3391598

Haydon, K. C., Collins, W. A., Salvatore, J. E., Simpson, J. A., & Roisman, G. I. (2012). Shared and distinctive origins and correlates of adult attachment representations: The developmental organization of romantic functioning. Child Development, 83(5), 1689-1702. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01801.x. PMCID: PMC3440552 

Causadias, J., Salvatore, J. E., & Sroufe, L. A. (2012). Early patterns of self-regulation as risk and promotive factors in development: A longitudinal study from childhood to adulthood in a high-risk sample. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36(4), 293-302. doi: 10.1177/0165025412444076. PMCID: PMC3496279 

Salvatore, J. E., Haydon, K. C., Simpson, J. A., & Collins, W. A. (2013). The distinctive role of romantic relationships in moderating the effects of early caregiving on adult anxious-depressed symptoms over nine years. Development and Psychopathology, 25(3), 843-856. doi: 10.1017/S0954579413000205. PMCID: PMC3725648

Dick, D. M., Nasim, A., Edwards, A. C., Salvatore, J.E., Cho, S. B., Adkins, A., . . . Kender, K. S. (2014). Spit for Science: Launching a longitudinal study of genetic and environmental influences on substance use and emotional health at a large US university. Frontiers in Genetics, 5, 1-12. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00047. PMCID: PMC3944794


Salvatore, J. E. , Aliev, F., Bucholz, K., Agrawal, A., Hesselbrock, V., Hesselbrock, M., Bauer, L. O., Kuperman, S., Schuckit, M., Kramer, J., Edenberg, H., Foroud, T., & Dick, D. M. (2015). Polygenic risk for externalizing disorders: Gene-by-development and gene-by-environment effects in adolescents and young adults. Clinical Psychological Science, 3(2), 189-201. doi: 10.1177/2167702614534211. PMCID: PMC4371857

Salvatore, J. E., Aliev, F., Edwards, A. C., Evans, D., Macleod, J., Hickman, M., Lewis, G., Kendler, K.S., Louikola, A., Korhonen, T., Latvala, A., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., & Dick, D. M. (2014). Polygenic scores predict alcohol problems in an independent sample and show moderation by the environment. Genes, 5, 330-346. doi: 10.3390/genes5020330. PMCID: PMC4094936

Salvatore, J. E., Kendler, K. S., & Dick, D. M. (2014). Romantic relationship status and alcohol use and problems across the first year of college. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 75, 580-589. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2014.75.580. PMCID: PMC4108599

Cho, S. B., Heron, J., Aliev, F., Salvatore, J. E., Lewis, G., Macleod, J., . . . Dick, D. (2014). Directional relationships between alcohol use and antisocial behavior across adolescence. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 38, 2024-2033. doi: 10.1111/acer.12446. PMCID: PMC4139289

Wetherill, L., Agrawal, A., Kapoor, M., Bertelsen, S., Bierut, L. J., Brooks, A., Dick, D., Hesselbrock, M., Hesselbrock, V., Koller, D. L., Le, N., Nurnberger, J. I., Jr., Salvatore, J. E., Schuckit, M., Tischfield, J. A., Wang, J. C., Xuei, X., Edenberg, H. J., Porjesz, B., Bucholz, K., Goate, A. M., & Foroud, T. (2015). Association of substance dependence phenotypes in the COGA sample. Addiction Biology, 20(3), 617-627. doi: 10.1111/adb.12153. PMCID: PMC4233207

Swann, G., Byck, G. R., Dick, D. M., Aliev, F., Kertes, D., Latendresse, S., Riley, B. P., Salvatore, J. E., . . . Mustanski, B. (2014). Effects of OPRM1 and stressful life events on symptoms of major depression in African American adolescents. Journal of Affective Disorders, 162, 12-19. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.03.020. PMCID: PMC4083691

Meyers, J., Salvatore, J. E., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., & Dick, D.M. Genetic influences on alcohol use behaviors have diverging developmental trajectories: A prospective study among male and female twins. (2014). Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 38, 2869-2877. doi: 10.1111/acer.12560. PMCID: 
PMC4244647

Salvatore, J. E., Prom-Wormley, E., Prescott, C., & Kendler, K. S. (2015). Overlapping genetic and environmental influences among men's alcohol consumption and problems, romantic quality and social support. Psychological Medicine, 45, 2353-2364. doi: 10.1017/S003329171500029X. PMCID: PMC4499011

Goyal, N., Aliev, F., Latendresse, S. J., Kertes, D. A., Bolland, J., Byck, G. R., Mustanski, B., Salvatore, J. E.*, & Dick, D. M.* (2016). Genes involved in stress response and alcohol use outcomes in high-risk African American youth. Substance Abuse. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2015.1134756. PMCID: in process
*denotes shared senior authorship


Salvatore, J. E., Gottesman, I. I., & Dick, D. M. (2015). Endophenotypes for alcohol use disorder: an update on the field. Current Addiction Reports, 2, 76-90. doi: 10.1007/s40429-015-0046-y. PMCID: PMC4520241

Edwards, A. C., Aliev, F., Wolen, A. R., Salvatore, J. E., Gardner, C. O., McMahon, G., Evans, D. M., Macleod, J., Hickman, M., Lewis, G., Dick, D. M., & Kendler, K. S. Genomic influences on alcohol problems in a population-based sample of young adults. Addiction, 110(3), 461-470. doi: 10.1111/add.12822. PMCID: PMC4329073

Salvatore, J. E., Edwards, A. C., McClintick, J. N., Bigdeli, T. B., Aliev, F., Edenberg, H. J., Foroud, T., Hesselbrock, V., Kramer, J., Nurnberger Jr., J. I., Schuckit, M., Tischfield, J. A., Xuei, X., & Dick, D. M. (2015). Genome-wide association data suggest ABCB1 and immune-related gene sets may be involved in adult antisocial behavior. Translational Psychiatry, e558. doi: 10.1038/tp.2015.36. PMCID: PMC4462601

 Salvatore, J. E., Meyers, J. L., Yan, J., Dodge, K. A., Bates, J. E., Pettit, G. S., . . . Dick, D. M. (2015). Intergenerational continuity in parents’ and adolescents’ externalizing problems: The role of life events and their interaction with GABRA2. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124, 709-728. doi: 10.1037/abn0000066. PMCID: PMC4573794

Cooke, M., Meyers, J., Latvala, A., Korhonen, T., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., Salvatore, J. E.*, & Dick, D. M.* (2015). Gene-environment interaction effects of peer deviance, parental knowledge and stressful life events on adolescent alcohol use. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 18(5), 507-517. doi: 10.1017/thg.2015.56. PMCID: PMC4827773
*denotes shared senior authorship

Salvatore, J. E., Thomas, N. S., Cho, S. B., Adkins, A., Kendler, K. S., & Dick, D. M. (2016). The role of romantic relationship status in pathways of risk for emerging adult alcohol use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(3), 335-344. doi: 10.1037/adb0000145.
PMCID: PMC4880412

Kendler, K. S., Lönn, S. L., Salvatore, J., Sundquist, J., & Sundquist, K. (2016). Effect of Marriage on Risk for Onset of Alcohol Use Disorder: A Longitudinal and Co-Relative Analysis in a Swedish National Sample. American Journal of Psychiatry, 173(9), 911-918. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15111373 PMCID: PMC5008987

Barr, P. B., Salvatore, J. E., Maes, H., Aliev, F., Latvala, A., Viken, R., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., & Dick, D. M. (2016). Education and alcohol use: A study of gene-environment interaction in young adulthood. Social Science & Medicine, 162, 158-167. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.031. PMCID: PMC4969130

Salvatore, J. E., & Dick, D. M. (2016). Genetic influences on conduct disorder. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.06.034. PMCID: in process

Haydon, K. C., Jonestrask, C., Guhn-Knight, H., & Salvatore, J. E. (2016). The dyadic construction of romantic conflict recovery sabotage. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 34(6), 915-935. doi: 10.1177/0265407516661766. PMCID: in process

Bucholz, K. K., McCutcheon, V. V., Agrawal, A., Dick, D. M., Hesselbrock, V. M., Kramer, J. R., Kuperman, S., Nurnberger, J. I., Jr., Salvatore, J. E., Schuckit, M. A., Bierut, L. J., Foroud, T. M., Chan, G., Hesselbrock, M., Meyers, J. L., Edenberg, H. J., & Porjesz, B. (2017). Comparison of parent, peer, psychiatric, and cannabis use influences across stages of offspring alcohol involvement: evidence from the COGA prospective study. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 41(2), 359-368. doi: 10.1111/acer.13293. PMCID: PMC5272776

Meyers, J., Zhang, J., Wang, J.-C., Su, J., Kuo, S. I.-C., Kapoor, M., Wetherill, L., Bertelsen, S., Lai, D., Salvatore, J. E., Kamarajan, C., Chorlian, D., Agrawal, A., Almasy, L., Bauer, L., Chan, G., Hesselbrock, V., Koganti, L., Kramer, J., Kuperman, S., Pandey, A., Seay, M., Scott, D., Taylor, R., Bucholz, K., Dick, D., Edenberg, H., Goate, A., Foroud, T., Porjesz, B., & Manz, N. (online ahead of print). An endophenotype approach to the genetics of alcohol dependence: a genome wide association study of fast beta EEG in families of African ancestry. Molecular Psychiatry. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.239. PMCID: PMC5503794

Li, J., Cho, S. B., Salvatore, J. E., Edenberg, H., Agrawal, A., Chorlian, D., Porjesz, B., Hesselbrock, V., & Dick, D. (2017). The impact of peer substance use and polygenic risk on trajectories of heavy episodic drinking across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 41(1), 65-75. doi: 10.1111/acer.13282. PMCID: PMC5205549

Kendler, K., Larsson Lönn, S., Salvatore, J., Sundquist, J., & Sundquist, K. (2017). Divorce and the onset of alcohol use disorders: a Swedish population-based longitudinal cohort and co-relative study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 174(5), 451-458. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16050589. PMCID: PMC5411284


Salvatore, J. E., Cho, S. B., & Dick, D. M. (2017). Genes, environments, and sex differences in alcohol research. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 78(4), 494-501. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2017.78.494. PMCID: in process

Salvatore, J. E., Larsson Lönn, S., Sundquist, J., Lichtenstein, P., Sundquist, K., & Kendler, K. (2017). Alcohol use disorder and divorce: evidence for a genetic correlation in a population-based Swedish sample. Addiction, 112(4), 586-593. doi: 10.1111/add.13719. PMCID: PMC5339032
​
*see also VCU News press release  

Webb, B. T., Edwards, A. C., Wolen, A. R., Salvatore, J. E., Aliev, F., Riley, B. P., Sun, C., Williamson, V. S., Kitchens, J. N., Pedersen, K., Adkins, A., Cooke, M. E., Savage, J. E., Neale, Z., Cho, S. B., Dick, D. M., & Kendler, K. S. (2017). Genetic influences on normative and problematic alcohol use in a population-based sample of college students. Frontiers in Genetics, 8(30). doi: 10.3389/fgene.2017.00030. PMCID: PMC5350109

Barr, P. B., Salvatore, J. E., Maes, H., Aliev, F., Latvala, A., Viken, R. J., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., & Dick, D. M. (in press). Social relationships moderate the importance of genetic influences on problem alcohol use in young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Savage, J. E., Long, E. C., Kuo, S. I., Cooke, M. E., Su, J., Barr, P. B., & Salvatore, J. E. (online ahead of print). Alcohol misuse across the life span: Insights from developmental studies in behavior genetics. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. doi: 10.1177/2372732217720222. PMCID: in process

Tielbeek, J., Johansson, A., Polderman, T. J., Raitiainen, M.-R., Jansen, P., Taylor, M., Tong, X., Lu, Q., Burt, A., Tiemeier, H., Viding, E., Plomin, R., Martin, N. G., Heath, A. C., Madden, P. A., Montgomery, G. W., Beaver, K. M., Waldman, I. D., Munafo, M., Paunio, T., Mous, S. E., Pappa, I., de Leeuw, C., Hammerschlag, A., Salvatore, J. E., Aliev, F., Bigdeli, T. B., COGA Consortium, Dick, D., Faraone, S. V., Popma, A., Medland, S. E., & Posthuma, D. (in press). Genome-wide association studies of broad antisocial behavior. JAMA Psychiatry.


Salvatore, J. E., Larsson Lönn, S., Sundquist, J., Sundquist, K., & Kendler, K. S. (in press). Genetics, the rearing environment, and the intergenerational transmission of divorce: a Swedish national adoption study. Psychological Science.

Salvatore, J. E., Savage, J. E., Barr, P. B., Wolen, A. R., Aliev, F., Vuoksminaa, E., Latvala, A., Pulkkinen, L., Rose, R. J., Kaprio, J., & Dick, D. M. (in press). Incorporating functional genomic information to enhance polygenic signal and identify variants involved in gene-by-environment interaction for young adult alcohol problems. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. doi: 
10.1111/acer.13551. PMCID: in process. 

Salvatore, J. E., Han, S., Farris, S. P., Mignogna, K. M., Miles, M. F., & Agrawal, A. (in press). Beyond genome-wide significance: integrative approaches to the interpretation and extension of GWAS findings for alcohol use disorder. Addiction Biology. 

Book Chapters and Commentary

Salvatore, J. E., Collins, W. A., & Simpson, J. A. (2012). Antecedents of emotion in romantic relationships: A developmental perspective. In L. Campbell & T. Loving (Eds.), Interdisciplinary Research on Close Relationships: The Case for Integration. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Simpson, J. A., Collins, W. A., Salvatore, J. E., & Sung, S. (2013). The impact of early interpersonal experience on adult romantic relationship functioning. In P. Shaver & M. Mikulincer (Eds.), Nature and Formation of Social Connections: From Brain to Group. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.


Salvatore, J. E., & Dick, D. M. (2015). Gene-environment interplay: Where we are, where we are going. Journal of Marriage and Family, 77(2), 344-350. doi: 10.1111/jomf.12164. PMCID:
PMC4378262.


Salvatore, J. E. (in press). Romantic relationships. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Human Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.