Abby L. Goldstein

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Toronto

Background Canada has one of the highest prevalence of cannabis use globally, particularly among young adults aged 20–24 (50%) and youth aged 16–19 (37%). In 2018, Canada legalized recreational cannabis with the aim of protecting youth by restricting their access and raising public awareness of health risks. However, there has been limited qualitat...

Plain language summary Research shows that both cannabis use and emotional problems (anxiety and depression) tend to peak in emerging adulthood. There is a relative paucity of research examining the temporal associations between cannabis use and emotional problems among emerging adults. Accordingly, this multi-wave longitudinal study examined three...

Previous research on parent‒child relationships has focused more extensively on younger, school-aged children and adolescents, with mothers receiving more attention than fathers. In addition, there has been a greater focus on problematic parenting (e.g., helicopter parenting) and less research on supportive forms of parenting that can promote posit...

Children receive many benefits from the consistent involvement of two adults in their lives. Although mothers and fathers encounter various barriers and/or challenges related to parenting or involvement in their children’s lives, there may be differences according to sex and social circumstances. Unfortunately, limited knowledge of ethnic minority...

Research on exposure to stressors and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in daily life has been lacking, particularly among emerging adults (aged 18–25 years). The aim of this study was to determine whether daily stressors predicted same-day and next-day NSSI thoughts and engagement, and whether emotion dysregulation moderated this relation. Participan...

Background In 2018, Canada legalized recreational cannabis use with the purpose of protecting youth and restricting access. However, concerns have been raised that this objective has not been met as rates of cannabis use among youth aged 16–24 have not declined. Youth cannabis use is associated with various adverse effects including psychosis, anxi...

Background Canadian youth (aged 16–24) have the highest rates of mental health and addiction concerns across all age groups and the most unmet health care needs. There are many structural barriers that contribute to the unmet mental health care needs of youth including lack of available and appropriate services, high costs, long wait times, fragmen...

Background Despite interest in transdiagnostic dimensional approaches to psychopathology, little is known about the dynamic interplay of affecting and internalizing symptoms that cut across diverse mental health disorders. We examined within‐person reciprocal effects of negative and positive affect (NA, PA) and symptoms (depression and anxiety), an...

Although there is increased attention to the mental health needs of university students, far less attention has been given to mental health-related university policies. Many Canadian public universities have mandated leave policies that specify the conditions under which a student may be required to take a leave of absence from university. The purp...

Evidence suggests that post-secondary students without pre-existing mental health concerns may have experienced worsening mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, relative to students with pre-existing mental health concerns. To clarify the psychological impacts of the pandemic, and elucidate why differences may exist among students, 20 intervie...

Perceived parental criticism is an important measure of the family emotional environment, linked to a variety of psychological difficulties in emerging adults (EAs) and traditionally assessed at a single timepoint. Our study is the first to examine perceived parental criticism as a dynamic construct that fluctuates and interacts with emerging adult...

Objectives: There have been concerns about the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian youth (aged 16–24) as they have the highest rates of mental health concerns. The objectives of the present study were to explore the experiences of youth with mental health and/or addiction concerns and their families during the pandemic, and to exam...

Theoretical perspectives on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI; direct and deliberate self-injury without lethal intent such as self-cutting or hitting) have long underscored the affective regulating properties of NSSI. Less attention has been given to the processes through which individuals choose to engage in NSSI, specifically, to regulate their dis...

Objective: Research has documented the relationship between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and increased cannabis use, but the studies largely rely on cross-sectional or longitudinal designs. Few studies have examined the impact of recent (i.e., past 6 months) ADHD symptoms on more proximal cannabis-related factors. The purpose of...

The four-factor vulnerability model posits that the personality factors of hopelessness, anxiety sensitivity, impulsivity, and sensation seeking are relevant for engagement in and escalation of addictive behaviours (Conrod et al., 2000a). While initially validated for substance misuse, this model has not yet been utilized in studying behavioural ad...

La pandémie mondiale du coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) a eu un impact sans précédent sur les campus universitaires et collégiaux à l’échelle internationale (p. ex., fermetures de campus généralisées, transition vers l’apprentissage en ligne). Les étudiants de niveau postsecondaire, qui forment déjà une population vulnérable sur le plan développemental...

Research indicates that rates of alcohol use and alcohol consequences are higher among LGBQ emerging adults (EAs; ages 18–25) than among their heterosexual counterparts and this is partly due to experiences of sexual orientation-based discrimination. To date, however, there is limited research on factors that mitigate against increased alcohol outc...

Childhood maltreatment is associated with increased risk of alcohol misuse. Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and coping motives have both been identified, separately, as mediators of the relation between childhood maltreatment and alcohol misuse but have yet to be examined as serial mediators in a high‐risk population. A total of 564 adolescent...

The purpose of the current study was to assess whether individuals differ in their experiences of emerging adulthood (EA) and associations with distinct patterns of alcohol use. To differentiate between EA drinking patterns, 153 regular community drinkers (ages 18–24 years; M = 20.9, SD = 1.9; 66.0% women; 53.6% Caucasian; 68.0% students) completed...

The gender gap in drinking has narrowed in recent decades, particularly during young adulthood. In light of this change, the current study examines the relationship between traditional femininity norms and alcohol-related problems for young women, and considers the social contexts of drinking. Young women in Canada (N = 132, ages 19–25, M = 21.64;...

Background and aims: Despite increases in female gambling, little research investigates female-specific factors affecting gambling behavior (GB). Although research suggests that some addictive behaviors may fluctuate across menstrual cycle phase (MCP), gambling requires further investigation. In two studies, we examined associations between MCP an...

Anxiety and gambling problems co-occur at high rates. Social learning theory (SLT) suggests that people high in anxiety engage in excessive gambling to reduce negative affect. Because anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a vulnerability factor associated with addictive behaviors, it is important to identify mediators in this high-risk pathway. Emerging rese...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) emerging adults (EAs) report higher rates of alcohol use and consequences than heterosexual EAs. Although experiencing sexual minority stressors contributes to problematic alcohol outcomes, the underlying processes remain unclear. This study examined drinking to cope with negative emotions (coping motives) a...

Background: Current models of alcohol problems in emerging adulthood (EA) have not fully considered the developmental context and integrated developmental, social, and emotional mechanisms. Attachment styles contribute to the development of emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning, which are both critical for managing periods of transition....

Gambling self-reports may be subject to several types of bias, including social desirability bias, which may undermine their utility for capturing gambling behaviour in both research and clinical practice. Retrospective self-reports of gambling are frequently used to assess patterns of behaviour over specific periods of time, but may not be as reli...

Despite often being considered equivalent affective states, shame and guilt have differential associations with problem gambling with only shame showing a strong positive association with problem gambling. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the shame – problem gambling association. Further, shame and guilt are associated with...

Previous researchers have found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) emerging adults (EAs) are at a disproportionally high-risk of alcohol use and consequences relative to their heterosexual peers. In my previous work, I found that LGBQ EAs who experienced a greater number of homonegative microaggressions (HMs) and sexual orientation-based...

The highly rural region of Appalachia faces considerable socioeconomic disadvantage and health disparities that are recognized risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). The objective of this study was to estimate the rate of IPV-related hospitalizations in Appalachia and the non-Appalachian United States for 2007–2011 and compare hospitaliz...

Table of diagnostic codes. This table contains the list of diagnostic codes used to identify IPV-related hospitalizations. (DOCX)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) emerging adults (EAs) report disproportionately higher rates of alcohol use and consequences than their heterosexual counterparts. Although research has demonstrated a relationship between sexual minority stressors and problematic alcohol outcomes among this population, the underlying mechanisms remain uncle...

It is well-established that childhood sexual abuse (CSA) increases risk for later substance abuse. However, less is known about the mechanisms by which CSA increases risk of substance abuse, including problem drinking. Research points to negative emotions as potential explanatory links between CSA and problem drinking, and suggests that pathways ma...

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with multiple negative outcomes, including increased risky sexual behavior. To date, the majority of research on the relationship between CSA and risky sex in adolescence has been limited, with a lack of focus on males and youth receiving child welfare services. Participants in the current study were 297 y...

While mattering to others is regarded as an essential element of personal adjustment, relatively little is known about the developmental origins and psychosocial correlates of mattering. The current research examined the extent to which a reported history of childhood maltreatment contributed to feelings of not mattering to others. We also examined...

Background and aims To date, there is a lack of research on psychological factors associated with young adult online gambling. The current study examined differences between young adult online and non-online gamblers, using information gathered at baseline and over 30 days during which participants reported on their moods, gambling behaviors, and r...

Objectives: Although it is well established that resilience moderates the effects of child maltreatment on mental health, less is known about the effects of resilience on pathways from child maltreatment to depression symptoms and alcohol problems. Previous researchers have found that difficulties with relationships, identity and affect control (i....

Emerging adults with problematic substance use face many transition challenges and risks for long-term health, mental health, and substance use problems. Yet current research on how these youth view their adulthood transition is scarce. Using qualitative data gathered from semistructured interviews with 31 emerging adults seeking substance abuse tr...

Individuals who consume alcohol may be distinguished by their drinking motives. Enhancement motives involve drinking to enhance positive moods. Research on the moderating effect of enhancement motives on the within-person relation between daily positive mood and drinking has not differentiated between high- (e.g. hyper) and low-arousal (e.g. cheerf...

Purpose: The extent to which immigrant-specific factors influence the intergenerational transmission of family violence is unknown. The objectives of this paper are to examine the associations between immigrant generational status (IGS), child maltreatment (CM), intimate partner violence (IPV) and acculturation (i.e., the extent to which an indivi...

The culturally and geographically defined region of Appalachia is a historically underserved area of the United States (US). Appalachian communities experience multiple sociodemographic and health-related disparities, many of which are recognized risk factors for family violence. The purpose of the current study was to estimate hospitalizations rel...

Longitudinal survey data were used to examine the relationship between two types of childhood maltreatment, abuse/neglect and exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), and two outcomes, substance use and dating violence, within the past year. Participants were youth (N = 158, aged 16-19 at Time 3) involved with child protective services (CPS). A...

The current study examined the relationship between gambling motives and gambling in various social contexts using both retrospective and real-time assessment of gambling social context. Ninety-five young adults (79 males, 16 females; aged 19–24 years) who reported gambling at least 4 times in the past month participated. Scores on the Gambling Mot...

It is well established that childhood maltreatment is an important predictor of marijuana use, but few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The current study examines marijuana motives as mediators of the relationship between childhood maltreatment and marijuana use in a sample of young adults. In addition, pathways fr...

The current study examined the relationship between gambling motives and gambling in various social contexts using both retrospective and real-time assessment of gambling social context. Ninety-five young adults (79 males, 16 females; aged 19–24 years) who reported gambling at least 4 times in the past month participated. Scores on the Gambling Mot...

The purpose of the present study was to examine adolescent alcohol use within the context of youth involvement and reinforcement from alternative leisure activities and also to determine whether perceived reinforcement from alcohol (outcome expectancy liking [OEL]) impacts this relationship. Participants were 956 students in grades 7 through 9 who...

It is well established that young adults are a population at risk for problem gambling and that young adults gamble for various reasons, including positive mood enhancement and negative mood reduction. Although these motives have been identified as important proximal predictors of gambling, the research to date has focused on between-subjects relat...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between childhood maltreatment and alcohol use disorders (AUDs), treatment utilization, and barriers to treatment in a national sample of emerging adults. Multiple types of maltreatment were examined, including childhood emotional abuse and neglect. Method: The analyses are bas...

Objective: It is well established that child maltreatment reflects a context of risk for multiple negative outcomes. Identifying factors that protect against negative outcomes is important for the development of strengths-based approaches that emphasize resilience, particularly for youth transitioning out of the child welfare system. The current s...

Adolescents involved with child welfare are at particular risk for the development of alcohol problems due to their histories of child maltreatment. Based on an emotion dysregulation-maladaptive coping model of alcohol problems, the current study explored whether drinking to cope with negative affect (coping motives) moderated the relationship betw...

The association between homelessness, current or past history of child welfare involvement and substance use is a concern in Canada. As a result, the youth often share common experiences of maltreatment, victimization, mental health symptoms and substance use. This study was designed to examine the factors associated with co-occurring mental health...

Given the high prevalence of dating violence among adolescent and the signifi cant consequences associated with adolescent dating violence, including its co-occurrence with other problematic behaviors such as alcohol and substance abuse, standardized measures to assess adolescent dating violence are essential. The objective of the present studies w...

While past research has examined the association between perfectionism and low self-esteem, research has not explored the possible link between perfectionism and feelings of not mattering to others. The mattering construct and feelings of insignificance to others are relevant to an understanding of interpersonal pressures to be perfect. In the curr...

The current study examined the extent to which an expanded self-punitiveness model could be applied to deliberate self-harm (DSH) among students making the transition to university. Specific components of the self-punitiveness model included perfectionism, overgeneralization, self-criticism, and shame. A sample of 319 university students completed...

The current study examined the application of resilience theory to adolescent gambling using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to establish subtypes of adolescent gamblers and to explore risk and promotive factors associated with gambling group membership. Participants were a diverse sample of 249 adolescents ages 14 to 18 (30.1 % female, 59.4 % African...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in predicting substance use and substance-related problems in a sample of older youth and emerging adults involved with child welfare. The sample was drawn from the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) longitudinal study (Wekerle et al. 2009). Par...

Re: “Health care for foster kids: Fix the system, save the child.”1 We would like to draw attention to homelessness as an all-too-frequent outcome for youth in foster care. In a recent study of urban homeless youth, we found that 42.7% were once involved with a Children’s Aid Society.2 In addition to the excellent recommendations made in the editor...

Objectives: Alcohol use and violent behaviors are well documented among adolescents and have enormous effects on morbidity and mortality. The authors hypothesized that universal computer screening of teens in an inner-city emergency department (ED), followed by a brief intervention (BI), would be 1) feasible (as measured by participation and compl...

Despite recent interest in deliberate self-harm (DSH), the majority of DSH studies have been limited to clinical samples and have identified psychological or clinical correlates and neglected general personality factors. The present study examined personality traits, child maltreatment, and substance use as correlates of DSH in a sample of 319 (65....

Violence is a leading cause of death for adolescents in inner-city settings. This article describes violent behaviors in relation to other risk behaviors (e.g., substance use) among adolescents screened in an urban emergency department (ED). Patients aged 14-18 years were approached to self-administer a computerized survey assessing violent behavio...

Correlates of past year gambling were examined in a diverse sample of 1128 youth ages 14 to 18 (54.1% female, 58.0% African American) presenting to an inner-city emergency department (ED). Overall, 22.5% of the sample reported past-year gambling. Male youth were more likely to gamble than female youth, and African American youth reported higher rat...

It is well-established that coping and enhancement drinking motives predict college student drinking and that personality traits predict drinking motives. Little is known, however, about personality and drinking patterns among individuals who drink for both enhancement and coping reasons. University students in the current study completed questionn...

In September 2005, the authors explored the relationship between perfectionism and binge drinking in a sample of first-year college students. The authors recruited 207 first-year college students (76 men, 131 women) to complete the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS). The authors divided...

Prior research supports the effectiveness of brief interventions for reducing alcohol misuse among patients in the emergency department (ED). However, limited information is available regarding the mechanisms of change, which could assist clinicians in streamlining or amplifying these interventions. This article examines moderators of outcomes amon...

The primary aim of this article was to examine event-level associations between alcohol use and sexual risk taking across first and repeat oral and vaginal sex encounters among at-risk college student drinkers. Participants (n = 221; 51.1% women) provided information on alcohol consumption, sexual activity, and event-level data on their most recent...

Laboratory research suggests that there is an inverse relationship between substance use and substance-free reinforcement, but the relevance of this relationship to the prevention of human substance abuse remains somewhat unclear. The present study evaluated the relationship between alcohol use and enjoyment from substance-free activities in a samp...

Violence and substance use were examined as multiple risk factors for depressive symptoms among 115 adolescents presenting to an urban emergency department. Using a hierarchical multivariate model, significant risk factors for increasing depression symptoms included female gender, increased involvement in substance use and greater exposure to commu...

Alcohol use and its associated behaviors are among the most common reasons for medical treatment and disciplinary infractions among college students. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of students who had recent serious alcohol-related incidents and to identify predictors of motivation to change alcohol use and heavy drin...

This chapter explores the growth of implicit substance-use associations during early adolescence and their implications for the development of primary and secondary prevention programs. Increases in implicit measures of substance-use cognitions are highly correlated with, and prospectively predict, the initiation of youth alcohol and marijuana use....

It has been hypothesized that alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) exist within an associative memory network and that their accessibility is facilitated in the presence of alcohol-related cues. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether the accessibility of specific AOEs varies as a function of mood state and gender and to determine wh...

This study examined whether an implicit mood prime would differentially affect the accessibility of self-generated smoking expectancies in women. One hundred nine ever-smokers were randomly assigned to receive either a positive or negative musical mood induction or a no-music control condition. Participants self-generated smoking expectancies, and...

Using a within-subject design, this study investigated the situational-specificity hypothesis, namely that alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs), subjective evaluations of AOEs, and the speed with which AOEs are accessed from memory vary as a function of environmental setting. Thirty-nine undergraduates (20 women), of legal drinking age, responded to...

Using a within-subject design, this study investigated the situational-specificity hypothesis, namely that alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs), subjective evaluations of AOEs, and the speed with which AOEs are accessed from memory vary as a function of environmental setting. Thirty-nine undergraduates (20 women), of legal drinking age, responded to...

Typescript. Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (leaves102-116). Microfiche. System requirements for Internet version: Adobe Acrobat reader.