David J. Kavanagh

Queensland University of Technology | QUT · School of Psychology and Counselling

Aims: The final year of high school is a challenging phase, during which substance use is common. We conducted longitudinal and cohort comparisons on the levels of alcohol and cannabis use among final year (Year 12) high school students compared to the previous year. Design: Longitudinal and cohort analyses of self-reported survey data. Setting: Te...

Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health programs but have not been explored to deliver wellbeing technique training in detail. A pilot randomised control...

Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health programs but have not been explored to deliver wellbeing technique training in detail. A pilot randomised control...

The aim of this study is to examine e-cigarette use among high school students and the associated risk factors for the use of flavour-only or nicotine vapes. Grade 12 students (N = 855) of 2020 from nine Australian schools completed a cross-sectional self-report survey. Correlates examined included age, gender, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander,...

The final year of high school is a challenging phase of adolescents’ lives and substance use can play an important role. We examined changes in the frequency and quantity of alcohol and cannabis use, and demographic correlates among Grade 12 students of 2020. Students (N = 844) from nine schools retrospectively self-reported changes in substance us...

Background and aims For most treatment‐seeking patients with severe Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), abstinence is the clinically indicated goal. Existing AUD motivation scales are non‐specific about treatment consumption goals, which limit their effectiveness. Desires and mental imagery are relevant in the motivation for AUD treatment engagement. The M...

Young people with cystic fibrosis face significant physical discomfort and an extensive treatment burden that often includes lengthy hospital stays and increased risk for psychological distress. With many treatments being critically important, parents are often compelled to act as translators between the child patient and medical staff. An inadvert...

Background and aims Negative affect and alcohol craving are common features of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Both independently contribute to AUD severity and poorer treatment outcomes, but their relationships are poorly understood. Multidimensional alcohol craving measures now allow for examination of key dimensions of craving. This study explored t...

Social robots have been used to help people to make healthy changes, and one setting that could benefit from having more support services offered includes the higher education sector. This trial involved an initial test to explore how a social robot could help to deliver a low-intensity problem-solving session for students around study-related issu...

Social robots have been used to promote health education and coaching to provide health information. Important behaviors to address and monitor include actions that can be modified, such as physical activity. These behaviours often require different personalised recommendations. Robots could be an effective way to give personalised health feedback...

This paper reports the design and qualitative evaluation of a social robot programmed to deliver a talk-based treatment program to improve health behaviour change for food intake and weight loss. A qualitative study was conducted to investigate factors that influenced human-robot interaction and its relationship to health treatment outcomes. Semi-s...

Objectives While significantly elevated distress is repeatedly found amongst young people with cystic fibrosis, their determinants remain largely unknown. This study explored whether metacognitive beliefs and self-efficacy for emotion regulation were associated with anxiety and depression after control for physical functioning, age and gender. Des...

Objectives: Sexual minority young people (SMYP) show higher levels of substance use than their heterosexual counterparts. This study aims to test potential LGBT community‐specific reasons assumed to affect substance use and their relationships to LGBT community participation/connectedness and substance use behaviour. Methods: Eight LGBT community‐s...

Social robots show significant potential as a healthcare coach for chronic life-long conditions and within medical settings. This 8-week feasibility trial explored a robot-delivered talk-based program for adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes to coach diabetes management with a focus on healthy eating habits. Trial objectives were to assess initial recr...

An individual's self-efficacy to interact with a robot has important implications around the content, utility and success of the interaction. Individuals need to achieve a high level of self-efficacy in human robot-interaction in a reasonable time-frame for positive effects to occur in short-term human-robot scenarios. This trial explored the impac...

Introduction Applications or “mobile apps” are a potentially important source of assistance for serving and ex-serving Defence members with mental health problems. PTSD Coach Australia is a modified version of an application developed by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. Clinician perceptions of mobile apps are important as they influence the d...

Motivational Interviewing is a widely used counselling technique. A fundamental principle of this technique is that hearing oneself argue for change strengthens motivation. This study presents the first analysis of participants' dialogue with an automated motivational interviewer. The objective was to explore communication with, and perceptions of,...

Background and Aims Recent meta‐analyses of motivational interviewing (MI) for reducing risky alcohol use in young people have reported modest effects. Few studies have targeted individual patient factors to increase MI effectiveness. This study determined if MI enhanced with individualised personality‐specific coping skills training (QuikFix) was...

BACKGROUND Adolescence is a life stage characterized by intense development and increased vulnerability. Yet, often due to stigma and embarrassment, young people rarely seek help. Alarmingly, even those who do may not be able to receive it. Wellbeing-focussed interventions offer a protective factor against adversity. Highly-effective innovative, ac...

Background Adolescence is a life stage characterized by intense development and increased vulnerability. Yet, young people rarely seek help for mental health, often due to stigma and embarrassment. Alarmingly, even those who do seek help may not be able to receive it. Interventions focused on well-being offer a protective factor against adversity....

Social robots are increasingly demonstrating effectiveness as low-intensity behavior change agents. Key targets for these behavioral interventions include daily lifestyle behaviors with significant health consequences, such as the consumption of high-calorie foods and drinks (‘snacks’). A pilot randomized controlled trial using a stepped-wedge desi...

Objectives The Motivational Thought Frequency (MTF) Scale has previously demonstrated a coherent four‐factor internal structure (Intensity, Incentives Imagery, Self‐Efficacy Imagery, Availability) in control of alcohol and effective self‐management of diabetes. The current research tested the factorial structure and concurrent associations of versi...

BACKGROUND PTSD Coach Australia is an app for serving and ex-serving Defence members that was adapted for the Australian context in 2013 from PTSD Coach, which was created in the USA. OBJECTIVE The current study aimed to provide an evaluation of the app from the perspective of serving and ex-serving members of the Australian Defence Force. METHOD...

Background PTSD Coach Australia is an app for serving and ex-serving defense members and was adapted for the Australian context in 2013 from PTSD Coach, which was created in the United States. Objective This study aimed to provide a user-centered evaluation of the app from the perspective of serving and ex-serving members of the Australian Defence...

Background Methamphetamine has been consistently associated with positive psychotic symptoms, but little is known about whether the reverse also occurs. Aims This study determined whether the relationship between methamphetamine use and positive psychotic symptoms is bidirectional over 12 months. The impact of lifetime psychotic disorders and meth...

Background: Comorbid depression and substance use disorders are common and have poorer outcomes than either disorder alone. While effective psychological treatments for depression or substance use disorders are available, relatively few randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have examined the efficacy of these treatments in people with these comorbid...

Cystic fibrosis and its treatment can have substantial functional and emotional impacts on patients and their families. This feasibility study assessed a new cystic fibrosis treatment, Metacognitive Intervention of Narrative Imagery, integrating narrative and meta-cognitive therapies with mental imagery. A total of 13 patients, aged 10–17 years, re...

BACKGROUND Young Australians (16-25 years) have some of the highest rates of past month cannabis use in the world. Cannabis use increases the risk of alcohol and other drug disorders, depressive disorders and has a robust dose-response association with psychotic experiences (PEs) and disorders. PEs are subthreshold positive psychotic symptoms, incl...

Background: Young Australians (16-25 years) have the highest rates of past-month cannabis use in the world. Cannabis use increases the risk of alcohol and other drug disorders and depressive disorders, and has a robust dose-response association with psychotic experiences (PEs) and disorders. PEs are subthreshold positive psychotic symptoms, includ...

Background: This study explored if a youth-specific mental health service routinely set goals with young people during initial intake/assessment and if goal setting and goal quality in this service was associated with patient retention. Methods: Consecutive initial assessments (n = 283) and administrative service data from two youth-specific hea...

Background Restrictive practices on alcohol sales in entertainment districts have been introduced to reduce alcohol-related violence in youth. On 1st July 2016, the Queensland State Government (Australia) imposed a 2-hour reduction in trading hours for alcohol sales in venues within specific night-time entertainment districts (NEDS; from 5am to 3am...

Background: Social robots that can communicate and interact with people offer exciting opportunities for improved health care access and outcomes. However, evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on health or well-being outcomes has not yet been clearly synthesized across all health domains where social robots have been tested. Objectiv...

The relationship between mental well-being and distress in young people is unclear but important for both theoretical and practical reasons. This study tests these relationships using both dimensional and categorical measures of mental well-being and distress. Two thousand and eighty-two Australians’ (16–25 years) completed an online survey. A subs...

BACKGROUND Evidence for the efficacy of mobile health applications (MHA) to foster healthy behavior, to prevent the onset of disease, to manage and cure disease as well as to assist with rehabilitation is rapidly growing. However, most mobile health apps lack efficacy data, and user star ratings in app stores are limited in their objectivity. OBJE...

Background: The number of mobile health apps (MHAs), which are developed to promote healthy behaviors, prevent disease onset, manage and cure diseases, or assist with rehabilitation measures, has exploded. App store star ratings and descriptions usually provide insufficient or even false information about app quality, although they are popular amo...

Objective: Functional Imagery Training (FIT) is a new brief motivational intervention based on the Elaborated Intrusion theory of desire. FIT trains the habitual use of personalised, affective, goal-directed mental imagery to plan behaviours, anticipate obstacles, and mentally try out solutions from previous successes. It is delivered in the clien...

Introduction and Aims Many young people engage in risky partying behaviours and excessive alcohol use in the transition period following high school graduation. Despite this, there is limited longitudinal research on adolescents before and after school graduation; and limited evaluation of interventions targeting these high‐risk periods. The presen...

Background: Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often co-occurs with depression and alcohol use disorder (AUD), treatment settings may not screen for PTSD symptoms. Aims: To explore the effects of PTSD symptoms in participants seeking treatment for depression and alcohol misuse by capitalising on the DAISI (Depression and Alcohol Integra...

Craving for alcohol or the strong desire or urge to consume it, is a diagnostic marker of alcohol use disorder. Within clinical settings, appropriate craving assessment can inform diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and evaluation of treatment outcome. A number of craving instruments are available which complicates measure selection. Important conside...

Sexual minority young people use licit and illicit substances at disproportionate levels. However, little is known about the perceptions of substance use among members of LGBT communities. This paper reports the results of a content analysis of 45 semi-structured interviews about substance use in LGBT communities with sexual minority young people (...

Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative studies (COREQ): 32-item checklist. (DOCX)

Measures of incentives and confidence in using a social robot were stable, predictive, and sensitive to changes in robot behaviors.

BACKGROUND Emotion dysregulation increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Music can help regulate emotions, and mobile phones provide constant access to it. The Music eScape mobile app teaches young people how to identify and manage emotions using music. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine the effects of using Musi...

Background: Emotion dysregulation increases the risk of depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Music can help regulate emotions, and mobile phones provide constant access to it. The Music eScape mobile app teaches young people how to identify and manage emotions using music. Objective: This study aimed to examine the effects of using...

Functional imagery training (FIT) extends multisensory imagery training by involving athletes with goal setting and appraisal. The authors measured the effect of FIT on 24 professional soccer players’ grit, a personality trait associated with perseverance for a long-term goal. In a stepped-wedge design, an immediate (n = 9) and a delayed (n = 10) g...

Background Motivational interviewing is an effective intervention for supporting behavior change but traditionally depends on face-to-face dialogue with a human counselor. This study addressed a key challenge for the goal of developing social robotic motivational interviewers: creating an interview protocol, within the constraints of current artifi...

Introduction: Elaborated Intrusion (EI) Theory holds that both functional and dysfunctional motivational cognitions are characterized by their intensity, cognitive availability and involvement of imagery, and can be assessed in terms of their frequency and cross-sectional nature. Recently published data on the Motivational Thought Frequency (MTF-A...

Introduction: Research shows disproportionate levels of substance use among sexual minority young people. A range of reasons for these disparities have been suggested, including connectedness to and participation in the LGBT community. Little is known about how these constructs are related to substance use involvement in sexual minority (sub)group...

Download full-text article at: http://rdcu.be/D0Dt - Background: The research explored parents' role constructions for themselves and other caregivers in promoting physical activity, limiting screen time, and ensuring their young child is not sedentary or restrained for extended periods. Method: Using a qualitative social constructionist epistemol...

Background There have been consistent recommendations for multicomponent and multidisciplinary approaches for obesity management. However, there is no clear agreement on the components, disciplines or processes to be considered within such an approach. In this study, we explored multicomponent and multidisciplinary approaches through an examination...

Mobile apps provide a highly accessible way of reducing alcohol use in young people. This paper determines the 1-month efficacy and 2, 3 and 6month outcomes of the Ray's Night Out app, which aims to increase alcohol knowledge and reduce alcohol use in young people. User-experience design and agile development processes, informed by the Information-...

Objective: Effective motivational support is needed in chronic disease management. This study was undertaken to improve a novel type 2 diabetes motivational intervention, (functional imagery training, FIT) based on participant feedback and results from a self-management randomised controlled trial. Design: Qualitative inductive thematic analysis of...

Although assault exposure is common in mental health and substance misusing populations, screening for assaults in treatment settings is frequently overlooked. This secondary analysis explored the effects of past sexual (SA) and physical (PA) assault on depression, alcohol misuse, global functioning and attrition in the Depression and Alcohol Integ...

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate describe neurocognitive, demographic and clinical correlates of vocational participation among a sample of young help-seeking adults. Methods Young people (18–25 years) accessing an early intervention youth health service participated. The Global Functioning: Role scale and level of vocationa...

Aim: This investigation aims to identify if correlates of not working or studying were also correlated with part-time vocational participation. Methods: Demographic and vocational engagement information was collected from 226 participant clinical charts aged 15 to 25 years accessing a primary youth health clinic. Multinomial logistic regressions...

Background: Two thirds of UK adults are overweight or obese and at increased risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Basic public health support for weight loss comprises information about healthy eating and lifestyle, but internet and mobile applications (apps) create possibilities for providing long-term mo...

Objective: While some studies suggest that men and women report different symptoms associated with depression, no published systematic review or meta-analysis has analyzed the relevant research literature. This article aims to review the evidence of gender differences in symptoms associated with depression. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane, and PsycINFO d...

University students are vulnerable to depression and other co-occurring mental disorders, but few receive treatment. Male university students are at particular risk of not receiving assistance. A better understanding of gender differences in the experience of depression may assist in improving its detection and the provision of appropriate support...

Purpose: There is a need for improved measurement of motivation for diabetes self-care. The Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire offers a coherent framework for understanding and identifying the cognitive-affective events that constitute the subjective experience of motivation and may therefore inform the development of such an instrument. Recent...

This study explores the relationship between reported parental emotional neglect when a child, assault type experienced, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depression, and alcohol consumption in treatment seekers for comorbid depressive symptoms and alcohol misuse. Participants (n = 220) with concurrent depression and alcohol misuse were recruit...

Background This study examines substance use disparities among homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual adolescents and young adults from nine countries. Methods Data from 58 963 respondents (aged 16 and 35 years) to the 2015 ‘Global Drug Survey’ were utilized. Rates of lifetime, last-year, last-month use and age of onset of 13 different substances w...

While tertiary students commonly experience distress that substantially impacts functioning and performance, few seek help. Innovative strategies are needed to promote wellbeing and address this distress. The current article describes the development, acceptability testing, and use of an Internet intervention to promote student wellbeing and resili...

Background: Personality disorders are highly comorbid with alcohol misuse and depressive symptomatology; however, few studies have investigated treatment outcomes in this population. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between baseline personality disorder cluster profiles and overall and treatment-related changes for those with co-...

Introduction: There is growing evidence for natural recovery from cannabis use by people with psychosis, but mechanisms underpinning it need further exploration. This study prospectively explored this issue. Method: Twenty-two people with psychosis and cannabis misuse were recruited: 19 provided data for at least one follow-up assessment, and 13 of...

Background: There is some evidence that, in contrast to depressed women, depressed men tend to report alternative symptoms that are not listed as standard diagnostic criteria. This may possibly lead to an under- or misdiagnosis of depression in men. Aims: This study aims to clarify whether depressed men and women report different symptoms. Meth...

Background: The Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) provides a reliable method to assess the quality of mobile health (mHealth) apps. However, training and expertise in mHealth and the relevant health field is required to administer it. Objective: This study describes the development and reliability testing of an end-user version of the MARS...

Aims: To estimate the magnitude of cannabis cue-reactivity responses in persons who regularly use cannabis. Methods: EMBASE, PUBMED, PsycINFO, PsycEXTRA, and Project CORK were searched for within-subject comparison studies published between January 2000 and December 2014. Eligible studies compared regular cannabis users' subjective craving or ps...

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: The primary objective of this review will be to assess the effect of internet and mobile phone alcohol-related interventions on reducing participants' alcohol consumption. Secondary objectives will include assessing the impact of the interventions on symptoms...

Background: Parental well-being can be seriously impacted during the challenging perinatal period. Most research and support services focus on perinatal psychopathology, leaving a need for programs that recognize and enhance the strengths and well-being of parents. Furthermore, fathers have received minimal attention and support relative to mother...