Kevin King, Ph.D.
Professor
Advising:
Not accepting new graduate students in 2025-2026.
Interests: Pathways to Alcohol and Drug Use and Dependence, Impulsivity and Self Regulation, Stress and Coping, Developmental Psychopathology, Longitudinal Methods
Links:
Research
Dr. King focuses on both substantive and methodological research.
His substantive research focuses on how cognitive and emotional aspects of self-regulation develops across adolescence, how context shapes their development, and how these forms of self regulation may either enhance or buffer the effects of other risk factors on problematic alcohol and drug use.
His methodological research focuses on how to improve the quality of data analysis in the psychological sciences. This work has examined ways to screen data for invalid respondents, improve the graphical display of data analysis, and improve the application of longitudinal models.
His research utilizes advanced statistical methods to study development and change over time, including latent growth curve modeling, structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, models for count and non-linear data, IRT and measurement models, and advanced tests and forms of mediational processes.
He has been principal and co-investigator on multiple federal and private foundation grants to examine substance use in youth, served on the editorial board of several journals, has been a standing member of NIH grant review committees, and is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications appearing in major journals including Addiction, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and Prevention Science.
Education
Arizona State University (2007)
- September 18, 2023 Jonas Dora received K99 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Dora is mentored by Kevin King
- September 8, 2022 Michele Smith receives a NRSA training grant from the NIH National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Smith is mentored by Kevin King.
- May 16, 2022 Postdoc fellow Jonas Dora received Early Investigator Catalyst Award from the ITHS Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies program. Dora works with Kevin King,
- May 16, 2022 Grad student Kevin Kuehn and Professor Kevin King co-publish an article in The Conversation about reducing teens' emotion stress
- March 5, 2021 Congratulations to Kevin King, who just received a 5-year K02 Independent Scientist Award, from NIH!
- August 19, 2019 Congratulations to Kevin King, who got a 5-year R01 award from NIH.
- January 9, 2019 Kevin King offers advice on how to actually keep a new year’s resolution going, in this Right as Rain story by UW Medicine.
- March 2, 2018 Katy Fladeboe’s paper, titled Caregiver Perceptions of Stress and Sibling Conflict During Pediatric Cancer Treatment, has been selected as the featured article for the next Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
- March 6, 2013 Jeremy Luk, a fourth year in child clinical, working with Kevin King, has been selected by the committee for the 2013 EARA/SRA International Summer School to be a student for the summer school at Kent State University.
- October 10, 2011 Kevin King received a Young Scholar Grant from The Jacobs Foundation for "Self Regulation and Sensitivity to Context as Determinants of Psychopathology in Adolescence."
- July 12, 2011 Diane Logan (lead author) and Kevin King’s research on heavy drinking was picked up by the Seattle PI, KUOW, and the Reuters news service, among others.
- May 31, 2011 Kevin King was interviewed for a Seattle Times article on the Undergraduate Symposium.
- May 16, 2011 Kevin King will be honored with an Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.
- April 11, 2008 The UW Clinical Psychology program has received a number 1 ranking (tied with UCLA and Wisconsin) in the latest U.S. News and World Report ranking of more than 200 graduate programs.
- Cruz, R. A., King, K. M., Cauce, A. M., Conger, R. D., & Robins, R. (2017). Cultural orientation trajectories and substance use: Findings from a longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth. Child Development, 88, 555-572.
- Cruz, R.A., King, K.M., Bamaca-Colbert, M., Mechammil, M. & Robins, R.W. (accepted). Mexican-origin youth substance use trajectories: Associations with cultural and family factors. Child Development.
- Kim, D.S., McCabe, C.J., Yamasaki, B.L., Louie, K.A., & King, K.M. (in press). Detecting random responders with infrequency scales using an error balancing threshold. Behavioral Research Methods.
- King, K.M., Luk, J.W., Witkiewitz, K., Racz, S.J., McMahon, R.J., Wu, J. and the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (in press). Externalizing behavior across childhood as reported by parents and teachers: A partial measurement invariance model. Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191116660381
- King, K.M., McLaughlin, K.A., Silk, J. & Monahan, K.C. (accepted). Peers’ effects on self-regulation in adolescence depend on the nature and quality of the peer interaction. Development and Psychopathology.
- King, K.M., Pedersen, S.L., Louie, K., Pelham, W.E., Jr., Molina, B.S.G. (accepted). Between and within person associations between negative life events and alcohol outcomes in adolescents with ADHD. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
- Lewis, M. A., King, K. M., Litt, D. M., Swanson, A., & Lee, C. M. (2016). Examining daily variability in willingness to drink in relation to young adult alcohol use. Addictive Behaviors, 61, 62-67.
- Luk, J. W., King, K. M., McCarty, C. A., Stoep, A. V., & McCauley, E. (2016). Measurement invariance testing of a three-factor model of parental warmth, psychological control, and knowledge across European American and Asian/Pacific Islander American youth. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 7, 97-107.
- Vaughn, M. & King, K.M. (2016). Premeditation and sensation seeking moderate the reasoned action and social reaction pathways in the Prototype/Willingness Model of alcohol use. Substance Use and Misuse, 51, 711 - 721.
- Luk, J. W., Patock-Peckham J. A., & King, K. M. (2015). Are dimensions of parenting differentially linked to substance use across Caucasian and Asian American college students? Substance Use and Misuse, 50, 1360-1369.
- McCabe, C.; Louie, K.A. & King, K.M. (2015). Premeditation moderates the relation between sensation seeking and risky substance use among young adults. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 29, 753-765.
- Monahan, K.C.; King, K.M.; Shulman, E.P.; Cauffman; & Chassin, L. (2015). The effects of violence exposure on the development of impulse control and future orientation across adolescence and early adulthood: Time specific and generalized effects in a sample of juvenile offenders, Development and Psychopathology, 1 – 18.
- King, K.M., Patock-Peckham, J.A., Dager, A.D., Thimm, K. & Gates, J.R. (2014). On the mismeasurement of impulsivity: Trait, behavioral, and neural models in alcohol research among adolescents and young adults. Current Addiction Reports, 1, 19-32.
- King, K.M., Lengua, L.J., & Monahan, K. (2013). Individual Differences in the Development of Self-Regulation During Pre-adolescence: Connections to Context and Adjustment. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 57-69.
- Luk, J.W., Emery, R.L., Karyadi, K.A., Patock-Peckham, J.A., & King, K.M. (2013). Religiosity and substance use among Asian American college students: Moderated effects of race and acculturation. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 130, 142-149.
- King, K.M., Nguyen, H.V., Kosterman, R., Bailey, J.A., Hawkins, J.D. (2012). Co-occurrence of sexual risk behaviors and substance use across emerging adulthood: Evidence for state- and trait-level associations. Addiction, 107, 1288-1296.
- King, K.M., Karyadi, K.A., Luk, J.W. & Patock-Peckham, J.A. (in press). Dispositions to rash action moderate the associations between concurrent drinking, depressive symptoms and alcohol problems during emerging adulthood.
- King, K.M., Chung, T. & Maisto, S.R. (2009). Adolescents’ thoughts about abstinence curb the return of marijuana use during and after treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77, 564-565.
- King, K.M., Molina, B.S.G., & Chassin, L. (2009). Prospective relations between growth in drinking and stressful life events across adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 610-622.
- King, K.M., & Chassin, L. (2008). Mechanisms of the Stress-Substance Use Disorder Relation. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 69, 629-638.
- King, K.M., Molina, B.S.G., & Chassin, L. (2008). A state-trait model of stressful life events in adolescence: Predictors of stability in the occurrence of stressors. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 37, 848-859.
- King, K.M. & Chassin, L. (2007). A prospective study of the effects of age of initiation of alcohol and drug use on young adult substance dependence. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68, 256-265.
- King, K.M., Meehan, B.T., Trim, R.T., & Chassin, L. (2006). Marker or Mediator? The relation between adolescent substance use and young adult educational attainment. Addiction, 101, 1630-1640.
- King, K.M., Meehan, B.T., Trim, R.T., & Chassin, L. (2006). Substance Use and Academic Outcomes: Synthesizing Findings and Future Directions. Addiction, 101, 1688-1689.
- Zhou, Q., King, K.M., & Chassin, L. (2006). The Relation of Family History of Alcoholism to Young Adults_ Substance Use Disorders: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Family Environment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 320-331.
- Chassin, L., Flora, D.B., & King, K.M. (2004). Trajectories of Alcohol and Drug Use and Dependence from Adolescence to Adulthood: The Effects of Parent Alcoholism and Personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 4, 483-498.
- King, K.M., & Chassin, L. (2004). The Mediating and Moderated Effects of Adolescent Behavioral Undercontrol and Parenting in the Prediction of Drug Use Disorders in Emerging Adulthood. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 3, 239-249.