Andrea Howard

Dr. Howard will be accepting graduate student(s) for Fall 2022

Research Interests

My research primarily examines mental health (depression, anxiety) and substance use (alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other drugs) in adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Current studies with collaborators include: (1) evaluating the developmental course of substance use from late childhood to the mid-twenties, comparing people with and without childhood histories of ADHD; (2) the intersection of self-control, mental health, and alcohol use in undergraduate students; (3) contexts that predict well-being in the transition to university, especially parenting and parent involvement.

Issues and challenges related to quantitative methods for developmental and clinical research also figure heavily in my work. Studies in my research group rely on longitudinal data, ranging from long-term follow-up studies to short-term daily and experience sampling studies. These quantitative methods challenges create opportunities for methods-development work. Recent projects have included methods for combining data from multiple reporters, comparisons of methods for estimating intraindividual variability in longitudinal analysis, and longitudinal data analyses with a covariate measured at only a subset of assessment waves.

Selected Recent Publications (student/trainee co-authors’ names in italics)

Howard, A. L., Alexander, S. M., & Dunn, L. C. (in press). Helicopter parenting is unrelated to student success and well-being: A latent profile analysis of perceived parenting and academic motivation during the transition to university. Emerging Adulthood.

Howard, A. L., & Barker, E. T. (2021). Mental health of students reporting food insecurity during the transition to university. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice & Research, 82(3), 125-130.

Macdonald, E. P., & Howard, A. L. (2020). Peer information and substance use decision-making in street-involved youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 30(4), 970-988.

Howard, A. L., Kennedy, T. M., Mitchell, J. T., Sibley, M. H., Hinshaw, S. P., Arnold, L. E., … & Molina, B. S. G. (2020). Early substance use in the pathway from childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to young adult substance use: Evidence of statistical mediation and substance specificity. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(2), 281-292.

Howard, A. L., Kennedy, T. M., Macdonald, E. P., Mitchell, J. T., Sibley, M. H., Roy, A., … & Molina, B. S. G. (2019). Depression and ADHD-related risk for substance use in adolescence and early adulthood: Concurrent and prospective associations in the MTA. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(12), 1903-1916.

Barker, E. T., Howard, A. L., Villemaire-Krajden, R., & Galambos, N. L. (2018). The rise and fall of depressive symptoms and academic stress in two samples of university students. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(6), 1252-1266.

Molina, B. S. G., Howard, A. L., Swanson, J. M., Stehli, A., Mitchell, J. T., Kennedy, T. M., … & Hoza, B. (2018). Substance use through adolescence into early adulthood after childhood-diagnosed ADHD: Findings from the MTA longitudinal study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(6), 692-702.