Nicholas Croft Borgogna

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Assistant Professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham

Adolescents' technology use is generally associated with food cravings, but it is not clear whether specific types of technology elicit particular types of cravings or whether personal characteristics play a role in these associations. We examined whether momentary associations between four technology types (ie, television, video games, computer me...

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) is a burgeoning diagnostic construct. No systematic reviews of CSBD pharmacotherapy interventions have been conducted. We addressed this gap using a three-aim approach. We reviewed researchers’ theoretical arguments for various pharmacotherapies, outcomes from pharmacotherapy trials, and the generalizabili...

Rationale Psilocybin is a potentially paradigm-shifting depression intervention. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Objectives Systematically assess harm reporting, risk of bias, action mechanism specification, and incremental therapeutic effect sizes in the psilocyb...

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention is the most empirically supported psychological treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Healthcare organizations and practice guidelines recommending CBT for OCD typically rely on meta-analyses that usefully aggregate treatment outcome findings. However, a critical...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether neuropsychological functioning was impaired among individuals with pediatric primary headache disorders (PHD) compared with individuals without headaches. Adults with migraine appear to evidence deficits in neuropsychological performance, but few reviews have examined whether cognitive performance is impaired among chi...

Objective: Cognitive intra-individual variability (IIV) is a commonly used method to estimate how dispersed or inconsistent an examinee’s test scores are across measures that comprise a test battery, trial-by-trial responses on a single task, or across multiple testing sessions. Elevated IIV has been hypothesized to reflect a failure of executive c...

Objective: Cognitive intra-individual variability (IIV) is a commonly used method to estimate how dispersed or inconsistent an examinee’s test scores are across measures that comprise a test battery, trial-by-trial responses on a single task, or across multiple testing sessions. Elevated IIV has been hypothesized to reflect a failure of executive c...

The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ). Additionally, the present study sought to conduct analyses to assess the measurement invariance of the SAQ and potential differences of experience of spiritual abuse based on sexual orientation, gender, and racial/ethnic identity. Utilizing o...

Introduction Chemsex, or the use of specific psychoactive substances to enhance or prolong sexual encounters, is increasingly prevalent among sexual minority men and is linked to adverse health outcomes. Aim This study examines the co-occurrence of chemsex and compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) among sexual minority men and whether this co...

Purpose of the Review Four years after the publication of the Brief Pornography Screen (BPS), this review was undertaken to identify the scope of validation research on this brief assessment tool for problematic pornography use (PPU) as well as to identify trends and current gaps in the literature. Recent Findings A total of 33 studies, including...

Background Most problematic pornography use (PPU) research relies on cross-sectional designs. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies are needed to better understand PPU correlates. We evaluated how daily PPU and pornography use ratings were correlated with baseline PPU, pornography use frequency (over 12-months), alcohol problems, and depres...

Background and aims Sexual trauma is associated with multiple negative health and social conditions, including compulsive sexual behavior. The present study examined network structures involving sexual trauma history, psychological distress (defined as depression and/or anxiety symptoms), substance use, transactional sex, and compulsive sexual beha...

The current conceptual review highlights considerations surrounding the potential for non-beneficence and undue coercion within the practices of psychologists and other clinicians providing substance use treatment for youth. The potential for nonbeneficence and undue coercion is assessed at three key stages of treatment for youth with substance use...

Intra-individual variability (IIV) quantifies an individual’s scatter in performances across a test battery (dispersion) or across reaction times within a single task (consistency). No studies have meta-analyzed the cross-sectional IIV literature in those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD). An additional aim of this...

The present study sought to develop and validate the Toxic Masculinity Scale (TMS). Following scale development best practices, a thorough review of the literature and existing measures was conducted. Next, a qualitative inquiry using a grounded theory approach was employed to develop a data-driven definition of toxic masculinity and 165 proposed i...

Objective: Eating disorders (EDs) are frequently associated with sexual dysfunction; however, no research has tested this relationship while adjusting for the known effects of anxiety and depression on sexual functioning. Furthermore, there is a notable lack of research on sexual functioning problems and ED symptoms among men.Method: Undergraduate...

Latent disease diagnoses are an unnecessary barrier in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) treatment research. ACT clinicians should move more firmly away from standardized treatment protocols. Clinical ACT process research is needed for specific dimensions of the psychological flexibility model. Historical ACT measures such as the Acceptance a...

Objective Cognitive intra-individual variability (IIV) is a sensitive predictor of cognitive decline and disease severity in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Despite its sensitivity, whether IIV is merely a psychometric artifact or disease pathology biomarker remains unknown. The present study evaluated the association between IIV and cerebrospinal fluid...

Persons with substance use disorders (SUDs) often act in ways that are harmful to others and incongruent with deeply held values and beliefs, which can result in painful thoughts and emotions related to critical self-evaluation (e.g., shame). In turn, substance misuse often serves as a maladaptive coping strategy that perpetuates a substance–shame...

Background Cognitive symptoms are often reported by those with a history of COVID-19 infection. No comprehensive meta-analysis of neurocognitive outcomes related to COVID-19 exists despite the influx of studies after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study meta-analysed observational research comparing cross-sectional neurocognitive outcomes in adults wi...

Problematic pornography use (PPU) is a burgeoning area of clinical interest. The Brief Pornography Screen (BPS) is a new PPU measure. The BPS has not been psychometrically studied within specific cultural groups. We sought to broaden the PPU literature by examining the confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) fit, measurement invariance, and structural i...

Background and Objectives: A sizable literature has studied neuropsychologic function in persons with migraine (PwM), but despite this, few quantitative syntheses exist. These focused on circumscribed areas of the literature. In this study, we conducted an expanded comprehensive meta-analysis comparing performance on clinical measures of neuropsych...

Objective Population studies have shown that Black individuals are at higher risk for MCI and dementia than White individuals but are more likely to be underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Although multiple contributory factors have been identified in relation to neurocognitive diagnostic disparities among persons of color, few studies have investigated...

Background: PTSD is a significant mental health problem worldwide. Current evidence-based interventions suffer various limitations. Ketamine is a novel agent that is hoped to be incrementally better than extant interventions. Objective: Several randomized control trials (RCTs) of ketamine interventions for PTSD have now been published. We sought t...

The pornography problems due to moral incongruence (PPMI) model is a premier framework for understanding problematic pornography use (PPU). However, past studies have generally examined men or entered gender as a covariate in primary analyses. Such approaches mask between-gender differences. Additionally, dysregulation constructs are also thought t...

Background: Latent disease classification is currently the accepted approach to mental illness diagnosis. In the United States, this takes the form of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5-Text Revision (DSM-5-TR). Latent disease classification has been criticized for reliability and validity problems, particularly regarding d...

Serious concerns have been raised regarding the validity of popular experiential avoidance measures. We developed a new “experiential avoidance rating scale” (EARS) to address some of the psychometric concerns with existing measures. Candidate items were generated according to the original functional contextual definition of experiential avoidance...

There is a need to better understand factors associated with psychiatric medication dissatisfaction in college students. We explored cultural and identity factors associated with psychiatric medication dissatisfaction in isolation and in combination. We also explored relevant covarying factors such as trauma history and psychotherapy utilization. D...

Sexual dysfunction is associated with psychological symptoms, including depression and anxiety. Sexual dysfunctions are often attributed to dissociation symptoms in individuals who reported sexual trauma histories. This study utilized a network approach to analyze relationships between sexual and psychological symptoms and examine whether the ident...

Purpose of review The goals of this report were to (a) review the empirical evidence of interventions for moral injury syndrome (MIS) symptoms, (b) quantitatively synthesize these effects through a preliminary meta-analysis, and (c) provide treatment and research recommendations for MIS based on our qualitative and quantitative review. Recent find...

Online dating platforms (ODPs) are becoming increasingly common, and their use may have mental and sexual health implications. The purpose of the present study was to examine facets of sexual and mental health among a mixed sexuality sample of ODP users, while also considering how user motivations (e.g., sexual or romantic reasons) may confer great...

We reviewed the phenomenology of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), as well as the combined effects of PTSD + TBI comorbidity on functional outcomes. We also provide a series of research and treatment recommendations based on gaps in the literature with an emphasis on culture, interpersonal trauma, and treatment...

The minority stress model is a popular framework for understanding sexual minority mental health disparities. A wide body of literature has demonstrated that distal and proximal stressors are significantly related to sexual minority people’s depression symptoms. However, many studies validating minority stress mechanisms do not adjust for construct...

We explored how sexting (no sexting, sent only, received only, reciprocal) was associated with depression, anxiety, sleep problems, and compulsive sexual behaviors across sex and sexual identity groups. We also examined how substance use predicted sexting classifications. Data came from N=2,160 college students living in the United States. Results...

Objective The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) was originally validated in non-Hispanic White women and has become widely used as an assessment tool for research on eating pathology in college students. However, the original factor structure has generally failed to replicate across various samples, especially among diverse populati...

Most police officer candidates undergo pre-employment psychological evaluations prior to service. The Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is a popular tool used by psychologists in these evaluations. The current study attempted to identify embedded markers on the MMPI-2 that evaluators could use to help predict officers who later received a...

Past findings have indicated that sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals experience disproportionate rates of emotional, physical, and sexual assault compared to their heterosexual/cisgender counterparts. While these findings are robust, many studies report homogenous groupings of SGM participants. This practice likely masks important between...

Background Exposure to traumatic experiences represent one factor that may contribute to the development of hypersexual behaviors. Aim We investigated the associations between posttraumatic stress symptoms and hypersexual behaviors by analyzing survey data from 2 samples. Method The first sample consisted of n = 585 college students, and the seco...

Recent debates have evolved regarding the classification/conceptualization of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD). Conclusions regarding an agreed upon CSBD model are hindered by reliance on the latent disease model of psychiatry. Competing biological-based frameworks are moving forward to replace latent disease classification more broadly b...

Problematic pornography use represents a common feature reported by those with compulsive sexual behavior disorder. While prior research suggests U.S. military veterans may experience disproportional rates of problematic pornography use, few comparative studies exist. Moreover, no measurement invariance analyses between veterans and non-veterans ex...

Over a half century of research has identified constellations of rigid, sexist, and hegemonic beliefs about how men should think, feel, and behave within Western societies (i.e., traditional masculine ideologies; TMI). However, there is a dearth of literature examining why people adhere to TMI. Within in this study, we examined TMI from an identity...

Purpose of Review Compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) is a new diagnosis included in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11). Interventions have been developed to address CSBD-related issues. We sought to review findings from recently published behavioral interventions for CSBD. Recent Findings Nine clinical tria...

Background: While preliminary research suggests non-heterosexual men and women view more pornography than their heterosexual counterparts, few studies have examined how problematic use differs across sexual and gender identity groups. Aim: We sought to test measurement invariance across popular measures of problematic pornography use (PPU) and exa...

Depression is common in college students. Peers, such as roommates and friends, are often the first point of contact for college students experiencing depression. Little research has examined helping intentions when a student is posed with a peer disclosing depression. Moreover, little research has examined how helping intentions may change as a re...

Traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) is a central concept in the masculine gender role strain paradigm and reflects rigid, sexist, and old-fashioned beliefs about how men should think, feel, and behave. Of all measures of TMI, the Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI) has received the most attention in the extant literature, particularly with respect...

Men are more likely than women to harm themselves and others with firearms. Central to this problem is men’s interest in owning firearms. The precarious manhood paradigm (PMP; Vandello et al., 2008) suggests that masculinity is tenuous and must be outwardly displayed. We conducted a PMP-informed experiment to test whether threats to masculinity wer...

Background We examined differences in demographics, access to mental healthcare, and perceived treatment barriers in college students with a history of receiving a psychotic disorder diagnosis compared to non-clinical (no history of diagnosis) and clinical (history of non-comorbid depression) control students. Methods Data came from the 2018–2019...

The present study examined pornography viewing, rape myth acceptance, and sexist attitudes. Data came from 392 male and 903 female participants. Multigroup SEM indicated neither pornography viewing, nor hardcore pornography viewing, were related to rape myth acceptance when controlling for sexist attitudes among men. Wald tests indicated hostile se...

The present study extended prior work on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20). The TAS-20 total scale score is commonly used in research in the psychology of men and masculinities and in clinical practice, but most published confirmatory factor analyses (CFA’s) do not support this use. Using a sample of 913 men and women, variance composition...

Exchange sex places individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) at particularly high risk for deleterious safety and health outcomes. A substance use treatment provider who is aware of a patient's exchange sex behavior is better able to provide appropriate screening, care, and/or referral to risk reduction services. However, little is known about e...

Little is known about how men’s and women’s traditional masculinity ideology (TMI; patriarchal beliefs about the norms for men’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) relates to political ideology in the United States. The present study used bifactor modeling to examine the relative contributions of seven norms of TMI, as measured by the Male Role Nor...

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM) is an area of increasing empirical and clinical interest. Few studies have explored the mental health of CNM individuals. Using the minority stress framework, we sought to address this gap. We analyzed a data set of college students gathered through the Healthy Minds Network. A sample of 91 participants with data fit f...

Psychological evaluations of clergy applicants to the Catholic Church are an important gatekeeping mechanism during the admission process. However, limited research exists on the validity of assessments for this evaluative purpose and none have examined the predictive utility of the MMPI-2-RF to determine if an applicant will be accepted to formati...

Many of the problems linked to rigid adherence to traditional masculine role norms, such as violence and suicide, are exponentially more dangerous when a firearm is involved. Despite men being disproportionately more likely to own a firearm compared to women, however, comparatively few researchers have examined the links between masculinity and fir...

The Femininity Ideology Scale – Short Form (FIS-SF) assesses traditional femininity ideology (TFI), which is the internalization of White, Western, heteronormative norms about how women are supposed to think, feel, and behave. As TFI applies to both in-group and out-group members, it is important to examine the FIS-SF’s psychometric properties in d...

Background: The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) are two commonly used screening tools for depression and anxiety, respectively. Despite the widespread use of these instruments, researchers have yet to examine whether scores may differ as a function of gender identity or sexuality orientation....

Malingering, or intentional feigning of impairment for an external incentive, has been the topic of extensive psychological research in recent decades. The emphasis on symptom validity assessment in training, practice, and research in clinical psychology is not echoed across other health professions. While past surveys of clinical psychologists rev...

Ambivalent Sexism Theory delineates two forms of sexist beliefs: hostile and benevolent. While several studies have indicated interpersonal problems associated with both forms of sexist beliefs, few have examined mental health factors. Gender role strain theories suggest that rigid adherence to traditional gender roles is associated with psychologi...

Research has indicated that pornography viewing is related to romantic relationship problems. However, the correlations across past studies have been small. We tested a model in which playboy norm conformity (i.e. desires to have frequent sex with multiple partners) functions as a confound between pornography viewing constructs on three romantic re...

The psychology of hope is used to conceptualize how college students successfully meet their personal and professional goals and ultimately persist to graduation. However, limited evidence has suggested that high levels of hope might have a paradoxical effect for Black college students when faced with experiences of discrimination. The present stud...

Experiential avoidance is a common psychological process, a core component of third-wave behavioral therapies, and a robust predictor of general psychopathology. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ version II [AAQ – II]; Bond et al. 2011) is a popular and widely used measure of experiential avoidance. However, studies examining the measure...

Clinical and counseling doctoral programs are popular avenues for graduate education. However, little is known about the mental health and financial stress of students across the differing types of programs. We conducted as online survey of current doctoral students in APA-accredited doctoral programs (n = 114 Clinical PhD, n = 80 Counseling PhD, n...

Masculinity stereotypes are held by both men and women, yet researchers have generally excluded women in studies of traditional masculinity ideology (TMI; beliefs about what men and boys should be and do). Additionally, a popular measure of TMI, the Male Role Norms Inventory, has failed tests of metric invariance (i.e., equivalence of factor loadin...

Problematic pornography viewing is a considerable issue for religious men. We tested a conceptual model positing scrupulosity and self-compassion as simultaneous mediators of the relationship between religiosity and problematic pornography viewing. We additionally examined the combined contributions of traditional masculinity ideology, pornography...

This study extended prior findings by examining how Big-5 personality traits are related to four dimensions of problematic pornography viewing: functional problems, excessive use, control difficulties, and avoidance of negative emotions. Participants (n = 569 women and n = 253 men) responded to an online survey. Structural equation modeling indicat...

We explored how perceived discrimination and mental illness change as a function of mono vs non-monosexual minority identity. Archival data gathered through the Healthy Minds Network was used to examine these relationships between 249 mono and 554 non-monosexual minority individuals. Results indicated no differences in perceived discrimination betw...

Problematic pornography viewing (PPV) is a growing concern. Based on a masculine gender role strain framework, individuals endorsing traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) may be especially drawn to pornography. However, relatively few studies have explored how TMI is related to PPV. Furthermore, no known studies have explored how these connections...

Problematic pornography viewing is receiving increased attention as a men’s issue. However, few studies have examined how culturally constructed masculine role norms relate to pornography problems and how individual differences may moderate these associations. Men (N = 520) were recruited online to participate in a survey examining how conformity t...

Many college men express stigma of seeking psychological help, possibly due to masculine gender role socialization proscribing help seeking. However, not every man who buys into restrictive masculine roles expresses self-stigma of seeking help, suggesting the presence of potential moderating variables. The present study examined self-compassion and...

This study examined how scrupulosity, depression, anxiety, stress, and neuroticism may statistically predict problematic pornography viewing dimensions. Participants (n = 507 women and n = 250 men) responded to an online survey. Structural equation modeling indicated scrupulosity as a significant positive predictor across all problematic pornograph...

This study examined how scrupulosity, depression, anxiety, stress, and neuroticism may statistically predict problematic pornography viewing dimensions. Participants (n = 507 women and n = 250 men) responded to an online survey. Structural equation modeling indicated scrupulosity as a significant positive predictor across all problematic pornograph...

Measures of traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) provide important information related to men’s well-being. However, most TMI measures are too long to be included in large public health, psychological, or medical survey batteries. Drawing on previous bifactor analyses of the Male Role Norms Inventory–Short Form (MRNI-SF), structural equation mode...

Pornography viewing is a growing practice that has been understudied in samples of women. As an answer to calls within the literature, we explored the role of problematic pornography viewing constructs, body image, and relationship satisfaction in a sample of women (n = 949). Structural equation modeling indicated pornography viewing frequency, per...

Empirical findings indicate that sexual and gender minorities report notably poorer outcomes on measures of mental health when compared with cisgender/heterosexual individuals. Although several studies have examined these issues, few have taken the time to examine differences between cisgender/heterosexual and specific lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans...

identified religiosity and experiential avoidance as correlates. Scrupulosity has been theorized as a factor within religiosity that may be associated with PPV. The present study tested a moderated-mediation model using structural equation modeling in a sample (n=727) of pornography viewers. Experiential avoidance and scrupulosity were found to be...

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether phonemic and semantic verbal fluency were more related to aspects of language processing than executive functioning (EF). An exploratory factor analysis was performed on a college-aged sample of 320 healthy participants using principle axis factoring and promax rotation on nine measures of EF...

The present study tested a model interrelating intentions to seek psychological help for suicidal thoughts with conformity to 9 masculine role norms: winning, emotional control, risk-taking, violence, power over women, playboy, self-reliance, primacy of work, and heterosexual self-presentation. In addition, the present study examined the effects of...