RANDY PATRICK AUERBACH, PHD
- Harvard title(s): Instructor, Department of Psychiatry
- McLean title(s): Director, Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Laboratory; Assistant in Psychology
- Email: rauerbach@mclean.harvard.edu
- Telephone: (617) 855-4405
- Fax: (617) 855-4231
- Office Address: 115 Mill Street, de Marneffe, Room 240, Belmont, MA 02478
- Degree(s):
- 2000 Cornell University, B.A.
- 2010 McGill University, Ph.D.
- 2010 McLean Hospital - Harvard Medical School, Predoctoral Internship
- Clinical Interests: Depression; Risky Behavior Engagement; Etiology; Treatment; Prevention
- Bio: Dr. Randy P. Auerbach's primary program of research is aimed at identifying cognitive, interpersonal, and environmental factors that render certain children, adolescents and young adults vulnerable to experience depressive symptoms and episodes. The research incorporates a developmental, psychopathological perspective through its attention to the types and severity of stressors that youth experience, peer and environmental influences, and resources available for coping. Based on etiological findings, Dr. Auerbach has developed both prevention and treatment programs for children and adolescents that integrate diverse theoretical frameworks. Additionally, Dr. Auerbach has also examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and risky behavior engagement among youth. In doing so, he has delineated the time-lagged relationship between painful negative affect and subsequent engagement in risky behaviors including substance use, precocious sexual behaviors, and aggression, as well as identified factors that potentiate this relationship. To date, Dr. Auerbach has examined etiological models of depression and risky behavior engagement in Western samples, and further, he has examined the cross-cultural applicability of these models as well as explored "culture-specific models" for youth from mainland China.
- Curriculum vitæ: (PDF format)
- Publications: (Selected)
- Auerbach, R. P., Bigda-Peyton, J., Eberhart, N. K., Webb, C. A., & Ho, M. H. R. (in press). Conceptualizing the prospective relationship between social support, stress, and depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
- Shih, J., & Auerbach, R. P. (in press). Evidence of a double bind for vulnerable individuals. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy.
- Eberhart, N. K., Auerbach, R. P., Bigda-Peyton, J. S., & Abela, J. R. Z. (in press). Maladaptive schemas and depression: Tests of stress generation and diathesis-stress models. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology
- Auerbach, R. P., Abela, J. R. Z., Zhu, X., & Yao, S. (2010). Understanding the role of coping in the development of depressive symptoms: Symptom specificity, gender differences, and cross-cultural applicability. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49, 547-561.
- Auerbach, R. P., Tsai, B., & Abela, J. R. Z. (2010). Temporal relationships among depressive symptoms, risky behaviors, perceived control, and gender in a sample of adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20. 726-747. DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00657.x
- Auerbach, R. P., Abela, J. R. Z., Ho, M. H. R., McWhinnie, C. M., & Czajkowska, Z. (2010). A prospective examination of depressive symptomology: Understanding the relationship between negative events, self-esteem, and neuroticism. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29, 439-463. DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2010.29.4.438
- Auerbach, R. P., Claro, A., Abela, J. R. Z, Zhu, X., & Yao, S. (2010). Understanding risky behavior engagement amongst Chinese adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34, 159-167. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-009-9238-x
- Auerbach, R. P., Eberhart, N. K., & Abela, J. R. Z. (2010). Cognitive vulnerability to depression in Canadian and Chinese adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38, 57-68.
- Abela, J. R. Z., Auerbach, R. P., Sarin, S., & Lakdawalla, Z. (2009). Core beliefs and history of major depressive episodes in currently non-depressed university students. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 33, 50-58. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-008-9185-y
- Abela, J. R. Z., Auerbach, R. P., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2008). Optimism, pessimism, and depression across the lifespan. In K. S. Dobson and D. J. A. Dozois (Eds.), Risk Factors in Depression (pp. 195-220) New York, New York: Elsevier.
- Auerbach, R. P., Abela, J. R. Z., & Ho, M. H. R. (2007). Responding to symptoms of depression and anxiety: Emotion regulation, neuroticism, and engagement in risky behaviors. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2182-2191.
- Auerbach, R. P., Abela, J. R. Z., Zhu, X., & Yao, S. (2007). A Diathesis-stress model of engagement in risky behaviors in Chinese adolescents. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 2850-2860.
- Abela, J. R. Z., Aydin, C., & Auerbach, R. P. (2006). Operationalizing the "vulnerability" and "stress" components of the hopelessness theory of depression: A multi-wave longitudinal study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1565-1583.
