- Professor
Biography
Education/Training
- Ph.D. Human Development and Family Studies (statistics minor), Iowa State University, 2003
- M.S. Sociology, Iowa State University, 2000
- M.S. Education, Northwest Misouri State University, 1996
- B.S. Pharmacy, Creighton University, 1991
Professional Experience
Present
Professor, Department of Human Development, Washington State University
2016-2022
Associate Professor, Department of Human Development, Washington State University
2010-2016
Research Assistant Professor, Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University
2008-2010
Research Associate, The Methodology Center, Pennsylvania State University
2006-2008
NIDA Prevention and Methodology Training (PAMT) Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pennsylvania State University
2004-2006
Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Areas of Emphasis
- Addiction and Substance Abuse (Etiology, Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery)
- Emerging Adult Development with Emphasis on Underrepresented and High-Risk Youth
- Prevention Science
- Social Contextual Factors and Health Behavior
- Advanced Quantitative Methods, including Latent Variable (e.g., SEM), Finite Mixture (e.g., LCA), and Multilevel Models
Research Interests
Michael Cleveland’s research focuses on the entire spectrum of substance use and addiction. His earlier primary prevention work centered on youth during the transition from high school into emerging adulthood. For many youth, this transition is associated with increased risk of high-risk alcohol and other substance use. Michael’s research highlights how parents can remain an active influence in their children’s lives during this time by offering strategies to help parents communicate and stay involved. This approach has wide-ranging implications for families as they learn how to navigate this transition in a way that empowers both the parent and the teen.
Recently, Michael has shifted his research focus to understanding the daily experiences of people who are in recovery – that is, people who suffer from a substance use disorder. Many people’s lives are touched by addiction and the odds are high that most people know someone who has become addicted to alcohol, opioids, and other drugs. Michael’s research aims to understand the factors that increase the risk of relapse among these individuals, with the goal to provide “in-the-moment” interventions that help people manage the stress, anxiety, and other relapse “triggers” that accompany the recovery process. A common theme throughout much of Michael’s research is the appropriate application of advanced quantitative methods. He has extensive experience and taught graduate courses and workshops in multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, and latent class analysis and mixture modeling.
Recent Grant Funding
Developing a Music Listening mHealth Intervention for Stress Reduction in Early Recovery. National Institutes of Health, National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), 1R61 AA031474-01. ($1,030,243 for Phase I; $1,246,858 pending for Phase II). M-PI: Michael J. Cleveland (contact); Co-MPIs: Hassan Ghasemzadeh, Arizona State University; Assal Habibi, University of Southern California. (08/15/24– 07/31/26).
Integrating research on recovery capital and identity development: Meeting the needs of youth in recovery. Washington State University Pilot Grant Support Program for Research on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. WSU Alcohol and Drug Research Program (ADARP). ($29,257). PI: Michael J. Cleveland. (07/01/22 – 07/31/25).
Linking EMA and Physiological Data to Understand Recovery Processes in Real Time. Washington State University Pilot Grant Support Program for Research on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. WSU Alcohol and Drug Research Program (ADARP). ($16,720). PI: Michael J. Cleveland. Co-Is: Michael McDonell, Patricia Pendry, Hassan Ghasemzadeh (07/01/18 – 12/31/21). [1,2,3,4,5]
Informing cultural adaptation of a parent-based intervention for African American youth. National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Use and Alcoholism, 1R21AA024321-01A1. ($374,234). PI: Michael J. Cleveland. Co-Is: Rob Turrisi, Frederick X. Gibbons, and Meg Gerrard (10/01/16 – 03/31/18). [1,2,3,4,5]
Selected Recent Publications
(***Denotes publication with significant student mentoring role)
Cleveland, M. J., Burns, V., Gom, R.C., Francis, M., LaBelle, O., Bannard, T., Dominiquie, C. J., DeFrantz-Dufor, W.E., Hennessy, E.A., Karimova, K., Ripley-McNeill, E., Shore-Miller, C., Smith, R.L., & Meca, A. (manuscript under revision). Adapting the Utrecht Management of Identity Commitments Scale to assess recovery identity: Results from a national study of collegiate recovery students. Submitted to Substance Use and Misuse.
Azghan, R. R., Sah, R., Glodosky, N., Cuttler, C., McLaughlin, R., Cleveland, M. J., & Ghasemzadeh, H. (2025). CUDLE: Learning under label scarcity to detect cannabis use in uncontrolled environments using wearables. IEEE Sensors, 25, 9093-9100. doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2025.3528030 ***
Glodosky, N. C., Cleveland, M. J., Azghan, R. R., Ghasemzadeh, H., McLaughlin, R. M., & Cuttler, C. (2024). Multimodal examination of daily stress rhythms in chronic cannabis users. Psychopharmacology, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-024-06709-3 ***
Sah, R. K., Ghasemzadeh, H., & Cleveland, M. J. (2023). Stress monitoring in free-living environments. Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 27(12), 5699-5709.
DOI: 10.1109/JBHI.2023.3315755 PMID: 37725721+++
Cleveland, H. H., Knapp, K. S., Cleveland, M. J., Deneke, E., & Bunce, S. C. (2023). Using ecological momentary assessments of negative affect and craving during residential opioid disorder treatment to predict opiate patients’ time-to-relapse. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 146, 208931. [a,d,e,f] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.josat.2022.208931
Alinia, P., Sah, R. K., McDonell, M., Pendry, P., Parent, S., Ghasemzadeh, H., & Cleveland, M. J. (2021). Associations between Physiological Signals Captured using Wearable Sensors and Self-Reported Outcomes among adults in alcohol use recovery: Development and usability study. (2021). JMIR Formative Research, 5(7), e27891. DOI: 10.2196/27891. PMID: 34287205+++
Jenkins, G. J., Cleveland, M. J., Cleveland, H. H., Knapp, K. S., Bunce, S. C. (2021). Examining the time-varying association of negative affect and covariates with craving during treatment for prescription opioid dependence with two types of mixed models. Addictive Behaviors, 113. doi.org/10.1016/J.ADDBEH.2020.106674 ***
Invited Presentations and Workshops
- Applying person-centered approaches to emerging adult research: An introduction to LCA and LTA models. Pre-Conference Workshop presented at the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood (SSEA) 7th Biennial Conference: Miami, FL. (October 2015).
- Introduction to multilevel modeling for analyzing clustered or longitudinal data. Workshop presented at the Taste of Methodology series. Pennsylvania State University. (May 2015).
- An introduction to multilevel modeling for analyzing clustered or longitudinal data: It’s just regression. Workshop presented to The College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University. (January 2015).
- An introduction to Monte Carlo simulation using Mplus. Workshop presented to The College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University. (January 2015).
- An introduction to missing data. Workshop presented to The College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University. (January 2015).
- Using Mplus to estimate structural equation models. Workshop presented to The College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University. (June 2014).
- Using latent class analysis and latent transition analysis in substance use research. Presentation to The College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University. (June 2014).
- Growth curve modeling: Examples and recent applications. Presentation at the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham. (January 2007).
- Fitting growth models with LISREL and SAS Proc Mixed. Workshop presented to the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham. (January 2007).
- Do parents matter? Parental and peer support as predictors of adolescent substance use. Presentation at the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addictions Studies. (February 2005).