Christal Badour

Research Interests:
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Substance Use Disorders
Health Disparities and Health Equity
Education:
B.A., Psychology and Political Science, Tulane University, 2007
M.A., Clinical Psychology, University of Arkansas, 2011
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Arkansas, 2014
 

Dr. Badour is the Director of the Stress, Trauma, and Recovery Research Collaborative (STARRC), one of three research programs housed with the University of Kentucky Clinic for Emotional Health (CEH). Her research focuses on understanding the development, maintenance, and treatment of psychopathology following exposure to violence and other traumatic events. Current projects in Dr. Badour's lab fall within the three following areas:

Trauma and Emotion: Understanding affective mechanisms involved in the development, maintenance, and treatment of psychopathology following traumatic experiences. Much of this work examines the role of specific negative emotions (e.g., disgust, shame, guilt) and emotion regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and commonly co-ocurring concerns including substance use disorders, sexual risk behavior, sexual dysfunction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

  • Flores, J., Brake, C. A., Hood, C. O., & Badour, C. L. (in press). Posttrauamtic stress and risky sex in trauma-exposed college students: The role of personality dispositions toward impulsive behavior. Journal of American College Health.
  • Jones, A. C., Lim, S., Hood, C. O., Brake, C. A., & Badour, C. L. (2021). Affective lability moderates the associations between negative and positive urgency and posttraumatic stress. Traumatology, 27, 265-273.
  • Tipsword, J. M., Brake, C. A., McCann, J., Southward, M. W., & Badour, C. L. (in press). Mental contamination, PTSD symptoms, and coping following sexual trauma: Results from a daily monitoring study. Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

Maximizing Responses to Trauma-Focused Interventions: Identifying mediators and moderators of symptom change during psychological treatments for PTSD and for co-occurring PTSD and substance use disorders. This work is aimed at enhancing existing interventions and guiding development of new targeted interventions to improve outcomes for patients with trauma-related psychopathology.

  • Badour, C. L., Flanagan, J. C., Allan, N. P., Gilmore, A. K., Gros, D. F., Killeen, T., Korte, K. J., Brown, D. G., Kolnogorova, K., & Back, S. E. (in press). Temporal dynamics of symptom change among veterans receiving an integrated treatment for PTSD and substance use disorders. Journal of Traumatic Stress.
  • Badour, C. L., Cox, K. S., Goodnight, J. R. M., Flores, J., Tuerk, P. W., & Rauch, S. A. M. (2020). Sexual health among veterans seeking outpatient treatment for PTSD: Does successful PTSD treatment also yield improvements in sexual desire? Psychiatry, 83, 70-83.
  • Saraiya, T. C., Badour, C. L., Jones, A. C., Jarnecke, A. M., Brown, D. G., Flanagan, J. C., Killeen, T. K., & Back, S. E. (in press). The role of posttraumatic guilt and anger in integrated treatment for PTSD and co-occurring substance use disorder. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

Understanding Causes of Health Disparities and Promoting Health Equity: Populations disproportionately impacted by trauma and violence also tend to be the same populations who experience various forms of health disparities and barriers to accessing high quality health care (including mental health care). Our team is increasingly focused on understanding the individual-, interpersonal-, community-, and societal-level factors that maintain and perpetuate health disparities. For example, The REST-KY Study is a collaborative project funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities that our team will be focusing on for the next five years. REST-KY is focused on understanding the factors that contribute to sleep and health dispartities (including violence exposure, PTSD, depression, and substance use) among adults living in rural Appalachian Kentucky. Another example includes the Latina Sexual Health Study which is an ongoing student-led project focused on testing a trauma-informed model of individual and cultural factors that influence sexual health and well-being among young adult Latina women. 

  • Martinez, A. I., Spencer, J., Moloney, M., Badour, C. L., Reeve, E., & Moga, D. C. (2020). Attitudes toward deprescribing in a middle-aged health disparities population. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16, 1502-1507.
  • Moloney, M. E., Martinez, A., Badour, C. L, & Moga, D. C. (2020). Internet-based cognitive beahvioral therapy for insomnia in Appalachian women: A pilot study. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 18, 680-689.

Dr. Badour will be reviewing applications for a new PhD student interested in working in her lab for the 2023/2024 academic year. 

 

Selected Publications:

Denotes a student co-author at the time the work was conducted. *Indicates co-first authorship

IN PRESS

Badour, C. L., Flores, J., Hood, C. O., Jones, A. C., Brake, C. A., Tipsword, J. M., Penn, C. J., & McCann, J. P. (in press). Concurrent and proximal associations among PTSD symptoms, prescription opioid use, and co-use of other substances: Results from a daily monitoring study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.

Brady, R. E., Badour, C. L., Arega, A. A., Levy, J. J., & Adams, T. G. (in press). Evaluating the mediating effects of perceived vulnerability to disease in the relation between disgust and contamination-based OCD. Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

Brake, C. A., Tipsword, J. M., & Badour, C. L. (in press). Mental contamination, disgust, and other negative emotions among survivors of sexual trauma: Results from a daily monitoring study. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 

*Saraiya, T. C., *Badour, C. L., Jones, A. C., Jarnecke, A. M., Brown, D. G., Flanagan, J. C., Killeen, T. K., & Back, S. E. (in press). The role of posttraumatic guilt and anger in integrated treatment for PTSD and co-occurring substance use disorders. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 

Tipsword, J. M., Brake, C. A., McCann, J., Southward, M. W., & Badour, C. L. (in press). Mental contamination, PTSD symptoms, and coping following sexual trauma: Results from a daily monitoring study. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 

Tipsword, J. M., Southward, M., Adams, A., Brake, C. A., & Badour, C. L. (in press). Daily associations between trauma-related mental contamination and specific coping strategies: Results form a daily monitoring study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

2022

Badour, C. L., Flanagan, J. C., Allan, N. P., Gilmore, A. K., Gros, D. F., Killeen, T., Korte, K. J., Brown, D. G., Kolnogorova, K., & Back, S. E. (2022). Temporal dynamics of symptom change among veterans receiving an integrated treatment for PTSD and substance use disorders. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 35, 546-558.

Flores, J., Brake, C. A., Hood, C. O., & Badour, C. L. (2022). Posttraumatic stress and risky sex in trauma-exposed college students: The role of personality dispositions toward impulsive behavior. Journal of American College Health, 70, 1711-1723.

Tipsword, J. M., Brown-Iannuzzi, J., Jones, A. C., Flores, J., & Badour, C. L. (2022). Avoidance coping partially accounts for the relationship between trauma-related shame and PTSD symptoms among women with a history of interpersonal trauma. Violence Against Women, 28, 107-125.

2021

Jones, A. C., Lim, S., Hood, C. O., Brake, C. A., & Badour, C. L. (2021). Affective lability moderates the associations between negative and positive urgency and posttraumatic stress. Traumatology, 27, 265-273.

Rivera-Rivera, J., Badour, C. L., & Burris, J. (2021). The association between psychological functioning and social functioning after cancer diagnosis: An intensive longitudinal study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 44, 355-367.

Walsh, K., Badour, C. L., Zuromski, K. L., Gilmore, A. K., Kilpatrick, D. G., Acierno, R., & Resnick, H. S. (2021). A secondary analysis of a brief video intervention on suicidal ideation among recent rape victims. Psychological Services, 18, 703-708.

2020

Badour, C. L., Bell, S. C., Clear, E. R., Bush, H. M., & Coker, A. L. (2020). Sex differences in problem alcohol use in high school as a function of sexual violence victimization or perpetration. Journal of Family Violence, 35, 633-646.

Badour, C. L., Cox, K. S., Goodnight, J. R. M., Flores, J., Tuerk, P. W., & Rauch, S. A. M. (2020). Sexual health among veterans seeking outpatient treatment for PTSD: Does successful PTSD treatment also yield improvements in sexual desire? Psychiatry, 83, 70-83.

Badour, C. L., Dutton, C. E., Wright, J. J., Jones, A. C., & Feldner, M. T. (2020). Shame proneness, negative cognitions, and posttraumatic stress among women with a history of sexual trauma. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 29, 699-713.

Hood, C. O., & Badour, C. L. (2020). The effects of posttraumatic stress and trauma-focused disclosure on experimental pain sensitivity among trauma-exposed women. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33, 1071-1081.

Hood, C. O., Jones, A. C., Flores, J., Badour, C. L., & Feldner, M. T. (2020). Distress tolerance interacts with trauma-related anger, sadness, and shame to predict posttraumatic stress symptoms following sexual victimization. Traumatology, 26, 396-404.

Martinez, A.I., Spencer, J., Moloney, M., Badour, C. L., Reeve, E., & Moga, D. C. (2020). Attitudes toward deprescribing in a middle-aged health disparities population. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 16, 1502-1507.

Moloney, M. E., Martinez, A., Badour, C. L., & Moga, D. C. (2020). Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in Appalachian women: A pilot study. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 18, 680-689.

Lancaster, C. L., Gros, D. F., Mullarkey, M., Badour, C. L., Killeen, T.K., Brady, K. T., & Back, S. E. (2020). Does trauma-focused exposure therapy exacerbate symptoms among patients with comorbid PTSD and substance use disorders? Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 48, 38-53.