Madison Aitken

Assistant Professor & Clinician Investigator

Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Biography

I’m a clinical psychologist and researcher in Toronto, Canada. My research focuses on understanding transdiagnostic factors in the development and treatment of child and adolescent psychopathology. I use a variety of approaches, including clinical trials, meta analysis, and secondary analyses of clinical and epidemiological datasets.

Areas I’m currently focused on include: 1) the general psychopathology (“p”) factor and how it can help us understand broad and specific risk/protective factors; 2) how network analysis can help us understand symptom change across therapy; and 3) the parent-youth relationship and how it can be improved using various therapy approaches.

Interests

Transdiagnostic models of psychopathology
Parent-adolescent relationships
Improving youth psychotherapy outcomes
Data analysis

Education

PhD in School and Clinical Child Psychology

University of Toronto
MA in School and Clinical Child Psychology

University of Toronto
MA in Child Study and Education

University of Toronto

Projects

Measuring Parent-Adolescent Affect Quality through Text Message Interactions

We are developing new ways to measure everyday parent-adolescent communication in order to understand how it relates to youth and parent mental health.

Improving Parent-Youth Relationships in the Treatment of Youth Depression

A group program for parents and caregivers focused on improving relationships when youth experience depression.

Risk and Protective Factors for Kids' Mental Health during COVID

We’re using intensive longitudinal data to understand how risk and protective factors are affecting kids’ mental health during the pandemic.

Understanding Adolescent Response to CBT for Internalizing

We are testing factors that predict how much adolescents benefit from group CBT for anxiety and depression.

Selected Publications

Attention problems and restlessness as transdiagnostic markers of severity and treatment response in youth with internalizing problems

Clinic-referred adolescents who show patterns of attention problems and restlessness have more severe internalizing problems. Those with mainly restless presentations respond better to group CBT.

Madison Aitken, & Brendan Andrade

Journal of Affective Disorders, 2021

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Toward precision therapeutics: general and specific factors differentiate symptom change in depressed adolescents

Psychotherapy for adolescent depression has broad effects on general psychopathology and specific effects on conduct problems across treatment, but improvement in specific depressive cognitions and melancholic features are mostly observed in the initial 6 weeks. Psychotherapies (CBT, psychodynamic, and brief psychosocial intervention) have similar effects on general psychopathology.

Madison Aitken, J.D. Haltigan, Peter Szatmari, Bernadka Dubicka, Peter Fonagy, Raphael Kelvin, Nick Midgley, Shirley Reynolds, Paul Wilkinson, & Ian Goodyer

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2020

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“P” and “DP”: examining symptom-level bifactor models of psychopathology in clinically referred children and adolescents

This study examined cross-informant evidence for a general factor of psychopathology (“P”) and a narrower, clinically oriented dysregulation general factor based on the Dysregulation Profile (“DP”) in a large clinical sample of children and adolescents. We also compared the magnitude of P and DP general factor associations with self-harm and suicidal ideation as an indicator of criterion validity.

J.D. Haltigan, Madison Aitken, Tracey Skilling, Joanna Henderson, Lisa Hawke, Marco Battaglia, John Strauss, Peter Szatmari, & Brendan Andrade

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2018

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Other Publications

More Publications

Cecilia Marino, Brendan Andrade, Susan Campisi, Marcus Wong, Haoyu Zhao, Xin Jing, Madison Aitken, Sarah Bonato, John Haltigan, Wei Wang, Peter Szatmari (2021). Association between disturbed sleep and depression in children and youths: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. JAMA Network Open.

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Karolin Krause, Darren Courtney, Benjamin Chan, Sarah Bonato, Jackie Relihan, Matt Prebeg, Karleigh Darnay, Madison Aitken, Lisa Hawke, Priya Watson, & Peter Szatmari (2021). Problem-solving training as an active ingredient of treatment for youth depression: A scoping review and exploratory meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry.

Preprint

Nivethine Mahendran, Madison Aitken, & Brendan Andrade (2021). Comorbid internalizing symptoms in children with disruptive behavior disorders: buffering effects or multiple problem effects?. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 46.

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Hali Kil, Madison Aitken, Shanelle Henry, Ortenc Hoxha, Terri Rodak, Kathryn Bennett, & Brendan Andrade (2020). Transdiagnostic associations between parental attributions, child behavior and psychosocial treatment outcomes: a systematic review. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.

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Hazel Ngo, Doug VanderLaan, & Madison Aitken (2020). Self-esteem, symptom severity, and treatment response in adolescents with internalizing problems. Journal of Affective Disorders.

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Madison Aitken, Marco Battaglia, Cecilia Marino, Nivethine Mahendran, & Brendan Andrade (2019). Clinical Utility of the CBCL Dysregulation Profile in Children with Disruptive Behavior. Journal of Affective Disorders.

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Brendan Andrade, Darren Courtney, Stephanie Duda, Madison Aitken, Stephanie Craig, & Peter Szatmari (2019). A Systematic Review and Evaluation of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Children and Youth with Disruptive Behavior: Rigor of Development and Recommendations for Use. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.

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Madison Aitken, Shanelle Henry, & Brendan Andrade (2018). Distilling heterogeneity among children with disruptive behavior: associations between symptom patterns and social functioning. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

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Aitken, M., Waxman, J. A., MacDonald, K., & Andrade, B. F. (2018). Effect of comorbid psychopathology and conduct problem severity on response to a multicomponent intervention for childhood disruptive behavior. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Human Development.

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Madison Aitken, Rhonda Martinussen, & Rosemary Tannock (2017). Incremental validity of teacher and parent symptom and impairment ratings when screening for mental health difficulties. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

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Teaching

I supervise clinical psychology trainees, thesis students, and postdoctoral fellows at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

For more information on clinical psychology practicum and residency opportunities at CAMH, please see here.

For information on postdoctoral fellowship funding opportunities at CAMH, please see the Discovery Fund Talent Development program and womenmind.

Please get in touch if you’re interested in volunteer opportunities in the lab or undergraduate or graduate thesis opportunities.

Contact

madison.aitken@mail.utoronto.ca
@m_aitken
80 Workman Way, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON M6J 1H4, Canada