Christina Robillard

Supervisor

Dr. Brianna Turner

Research Interests

My research applies a developmental framework to understand when and why some adolescents engage in self-damaging behaviors, including self-injury, disordered eating, and substance misuse. Specifically, I combine longitudinal and microlongitudinal designs with multi-informant methods to examine how these behaviors develop within family systems. For instance, my primary line of work integrates parent- and adolescent-reports to investigate how families navigate the disclosure of a youth’s self-injury, including how dynamic parent-child interactions support or hinder recovery. The goal of my research is to produce knowledge that can refine developmental models of self-damaging behaviors, foster empathy for individuals who engage in these behaviors, and improve therapeutic interventions.

Representative Publications:

Robillard, C. L., Legg, N. K., & Ames, M. E., & Turner, B. J. (2022). Support for a transdiagnostic motivational model of self-damaging behaviors: Comparing the salience of motives for binge drinking, disordered eating, and nonsuicidal self-injury. Behavior Therapy, 53(6), 1219-1232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.005

Robillard, C. L., Balakrishnan, C., Craig, S. G., & Turner, B. J. (2022). A two-way street? Reciprocal associations between parental warmth and hostility with substance use among justice-involved adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 51, 1442-1456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01611-7

Robillard, C. L., Turner, B. J., Ames, M. E., & Craig, S. G. (2021). Deliberate self-harm in adolescents during COVID-19: The roles of pandemic-related stress, emotion regulation difficulties, and social distancing. Psychiatry Research, 304(114152). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114152

Representative Presentations

Robillard, C. L., Switzer, A., Legg, N. K., & Turner, B. J. (2022, June). Does basic psychological need frustration mediate the associations between self-criticism and nonsuicidal self-injury, disordered eating, and substance misuse? Individual presentation: Annual conference of the International Society for the Study of Self-Injury, virtual.

Robillard, C. L., Gretton, A., & Turner, B. J. (2022, March). Reasons for starting versus continuing nonsuicidal self-injury among adolescents. In A. J. Reck (Chair), Infection points for mental health risk trajectories. Symposium presentation: Biennial Society for Research on Adolescence Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Robillard, C. L., Legg, N. K., Balakrishnan, C., & Turner, B. J. (2021, May). Self-blame as a coping strategy: An antecedent or consequence of nonsuicidal self-injury? Flash talk: 33^rd Annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, virtual.

Recent Awards

• UVic Graduate Award for Excellence in Research Publications (2021)

• Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral Program (2020-2023)

• Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master’s Program (2018)