Michael H. Boyle

Contact via McMaster University

Key Research Areas
Associated Researchers
Associated Organizations

Recent Research Projects

Brock Healthy Youth Project

2016/17-2020/21 • $1,391,669 • PI,CO
Adolescence is a sensitive period for engagement in health-risk behaviors (e.g., substance use, physical inactivity, poor nutrition, risky sexual activity), which can have life-long repercussions. This project assesses the prominent Dual Systems model of adolescent brain development, which...

Multimorbidity in Children and Youth Across the LIFEcourse (MY LIFE)

2016/17-2020/21 • $1,176,566 • PI,CO
Nearly 15% of youth less than 18 years of age are affected by both a physical and mental health problem, a situation known as 'multimorbidity'. This combination of problems can lead to compromised life quality, hardship for families, and considerable burden on the healthcare system. However,...

Preventing Child Maltreatment: Changing a Child's Trajectory, Improving Health, and Strengthening Families.

2015/16-2020/21 • $1,079,062 • PI,Other
Program of Research. The consequences of child maltreatment are profound and can have a negative impact on health across the lifespan. A serious gap remains between understanding the harms related to child maltreatment and effective prevention strategies. My goal is to prevent child maltreatment...

Longitudinal Youth in Transition Study (LYiTS)

2017/18-2020/21 • $825,685 • PI,CO
Although transition between health services is widely recognized as a problematic health systems hurdle, the factors necessary for successful transition from child to adult mental health services are poorly understood. Further, fragmentation and non-uniformity among mental health organizations...

Equity in Mental Health Care for Children and Youth

2018/19-2020/21 • $531,737 • PI,CO
Mental health problems and suicide are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality for children and youth. Yet access to mental health care for children is an ongoing challenge. The principle of equity in access to healthcare is reflected in the Canada Health Act. However, equity...

Self-Regulation in the Offspring of Women Enrolled in an RCT Assessing the Effectiveness of a Nutrition+Exercise Intervention for Healthy Gestational Weight Gain

2018/19-2020/21 • $371,728 • PI,CO
Optimal self-regulation, the ability to set limits and manage one's own emotions, attention, and behaviour is vital to health and success in life. Since the building blocks of self-regulation begin to develop at conception, maternal health problems, dietary imbalances, and physical inactivity...

Early Neurodevelopment in the Offspring of Women Enrolled in a Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Effectiveness of a Nutrition+Exercise Intervention for Healthy Gestational Weight Gain

2017/18-2020/21 • $75,000 • PI,CO
Optimal early brain development is vital to health and success in life. Since neurodevelopment begins at conception, maternal health problems, dietary imbalances, and physical inactivity during pregnancy can lead to intellectual and behavioural difficulties in offspring early in life. Many...

Understanding health risks and promoting resilience in male youth with sexual violence experience

2014/15-2019/20 • $1,495,070 • PI,CO,Other
This Team grant tackles the hidden problem of sexual violence (SV)victimization among male youths, from early adolescence to young adulthood. SV reflects a range of unwanted, coercive and non-consensual experiences, from sexting to rape. SV (including terms as childhood sexual abuse/CSA, sexual...

The impact of a home visitation intervention on biological outcomes in infants exposed to psychosocial adversity: A longitudinal evaluation.

2013/14-2018/19 • $955,022 • PI,CO
Young, low-income mothers and their children are at high risk of suffering health and economic disparities. There is an urgent need for effective early interventions for two reasons: (1) pathways of risk are established early on and tend to be reinforced over time; and (2) the ability to change...

Ontario Child Health Study Sequel

2012/13-2017/18 • $5,312,446 • PI,CO
Mental health, the ability to regulate our emotions and behaviour and to cope with stress, is essential to development and life quality for all children. Yet very little is known today about the mental health of Canadian children. Since the last major study of childhood mental health, the...

The Social Determinants of Child Health

2010/11-2017/18 • $1,400,000 • PI
The primary objectives of this research program are: to quantify the adverse effects of socioeconomic status on the health of our children, and to identify the characteristics of families, communities and nations which mute these effects. As a Canada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of...

School Influences on Child and Youth Mental Health

2014/15-2016/17 • $431,895 • PI,CO
Approximately 15% of Canadian children and adolescents (hereinafter called children) suffer from a mental disorder that adversely impacts their daily functioning at home, school, or within the community. Many of these children are exposed to socio-economic (SES) disadvantage and very few of them...

Avoiding the Backlash: Identifying Features of Bullying Prevention Programs that Increase or Decrease Unintended Negative Responses (Reactance) in Grade 5, 6, 7, and 8 Students and Educators.

2012/13-2015/16 • $460,530 • PI,CO
Although great effort has been devoted to the prevention of bullying, bullying remains a serious Canadian public health problem. Involvement as a bully or victim is associated with poor school attendance, underachievement, dropout, health complaints, sleep difficulties, anxiety, depression, and...

Early Neurodevelopment in the Offspring of Women Enrolled in a Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Effectiveness of a Nutrition+Exercise Intervention for Healthy Gestational Weight Gain

2015/16 • $100,000 • PI,CO
Optimal early brain development is vital to health and success in life. Since neurodevelopment begins at conception, maternal health problems, dietary imbalances, and physical inactivity during pregnancy can lead to intellectual and behavioural difficulties in offspring early in life. Many...

Centre for Research Development in Gender, Mental Health and Violence Across the Lifespan

2010/11-2014/15 • $1,734,000 • PI,CO
The mental health of children and adults across many areas, including substance use, mood and personality disorders can be profoundly affected by violence in the home. These effects often persist, and can contribute to ongoing cycles of violence and poor health. Child maltreatment (CM) and...

CIHR Training Grant in Autism Research

2010/11-2014/15 • $1,625,000 • PI,CO
Autism is a serious and not so rare disorder that affects young children in the first 3 years of life (and 52,000 young Canadians under age 20). It is a lifelong handicap, with no cure yet available. Genetic susceptibility, abnormal patterns of brain growth, and specific neuropsychological...

Michael Smith Prize in Health Research

2010/11-2014/15 • $425,000 • PI
No summary

Psychiatric comorbidity in children with chronic physical illness: a pilot study

2014/15 • $118,656 • PI,CO
Compared with their healthy peers, children with asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, or juvenile arthritis have about twice the risk for mental health problems that will lower their quality of life and potentially compromise family functioning. Unfortunately, little is known about what influences their...

The epidemiology of resilience following child maltreatment: An examination of protective factors across the lifespan.

2012/13-2014/15 • $46,354 • PI,CO
To date, child maltreatment research has focused mainly on risk factors and poor outcomes with fewer studies examining resilience following child maltreatment and protective factors associated with mental health (e.g., absence of mental disorders and high quality of life). Resilience is...

FINCAN - Neuropsychiatric and mental health outcomes of extremely low birthweight from childhood to adulthood

2010/11-2013/14 • $1,301,171 • PI,CO
No summary

Metabolic, cardiovascular and cognitive outcomes and their determinants in young adults born with extremely low birth weights

2011/12-2013/14 • $239,363 • PI,CO
Although being born with an extremely low birth weight (ELBW; birth weight < 1 kg) is associated with health consequences in adulthood, we have much to learn regarding the contributing factors to a particular health outcome. We are learning about these health outcomes by studying groups of...

Modeling the Influence of Chronic Illness and Family Environment on Self-concept and Mental Health Outcomes in Adolescents

2012/13-2013/14 • $140,000 • Scholarship/Fellowship,Other
About 50% of adults with mental disorders experienced their onset during adolescence. Among those at elevated risk for mental disorder are adolescents with chronic illnesses (AWCI), representing about 1 in 5 adolescents in Canada. In this vulnerable group, self-concept, our internal depiction of...

Gender Differences in Youth Suicide - Implications for Suicide Prevention

2013/14 • $100,000 • PI,CO,Other
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth, with the bulk of these deaths occurring in males. We seek to better understand why to inform prevention efforts. We propose three studies among Ontario youth (aged 10 to 25 years) to provide new knowledge on: 1) gender differences in health...

Delivering treatment for Oppositional Defiant Disorder at a distance: A randomized trial

2010/11-2012/13 • $867,698 • PI,CO
Approximately 14% of Canadian children aged 4 to 17 years (more than 800,000) have mental health problems. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), which is characterized by a pattern of hostile, irritable, uncooperative behaviour, a failure to follow rules, and a pattern of conflict with parents...

Individual and Contextual Influences on Mental Health in Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Children

2010/11-2012/13 • $449,483 • PI,CO
Children living in immigrant families represent the fastest growing segment of the child population in Canada. Compared to non-immigrant children, immigrant children are far more likely to experience social and economic adversity, and there is growing evidence to suggest that these inequalities...

Outcome Trajectories in Children with Epilepsy: What Factors are Important?

2010/11-2012/13 • $423,485 • PI,CO
Epilepsy can seriously impair the life quality of youth with epilepsy (YWE) and their families. YWE have much higher rates of emotional, behavioural, social and academic difficulties than youth with other chronic health conditions or youth in general. If we can identify and understand the...

Classifying Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Disorder

2010/11-2012/13 • $286,445 • PI,CO
Reliable and valid instruments are needed to classify child and adolescent psychiatric disorder described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. In the general population, these instruments are needed to estimate the frequency of disorder to advocate for children's mental health and to help...

The Mental Health of Youth Born at High Birth Weight and Subjected to its Maternal Determinants: A Multi-National Study of Prospective, Longitudinal Cohorts

2010/11-2012/13 • $140,833 • Scholarship/Fellowship,Other
Nearly one in five children suffers from mental illness and 50% of adult psychiatric patients have met diagnostic criteria for such disorders in childhood. Exposure to physiologically stressful environments in the womb can result in high birth weight and influence the development of organs and...

Measuring Information Processing in Its Interpersonal Context: Links to Youth Anxiety and Depression

2010/11-2011/12 • $160,593 • PI,CO
Many Canadian youth struggle with anxiety and depression, difficulties that can lead to serious long-term consequences. Poor social functioning has been implicated in both of these disorders. Unfortunately, treatments targeting these interpersonal problems have met with limited success. We aim...

Improving the Mental Health of Canadian Children and Adolescents: A Research Synthesis

2011/12 • $100,000 • PI,CO,Other
We propose a set of knowledge synthesis (KS) activities to support the creation of an e-chapter devoted to the mental health of Canadian children and adolecents for inclusion in the innovative, web-based 4th Edition of The Health of Canada's Children: A CICH Profile. Synthesis preparation (under...

CIHR Team in Access to Children's Mental Health Services

2010/11 • $532,685 • PI,CO
Children with mental health problems frequently do not receive timely specialist care. It is not unusual for families to wait 6 months to a year for assessment and intervention. The consequences of the lack of timely service include deterioration of child and family functioning, discouragement...

Canada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of Child Health

2010/11 • $50,000 • PI
The primary objectives of this research program are: to quantify the adverse effects of socioeconomic status on the health of our children, and to identify the characteristics of families, communities and nations which mute these effects. As a Canada Research Chair in the Social Determinants of...

Community Partners with Schools (COMPASS) - A Collaborative Mental Health Services Model

2010/11 • $15,000 • PI,CO,Other
We wish to bring researchers and knowledge-users together to develop a full PHSI application. The goal is to evaluate an innovative model of community-based, collaborative mental health care for children and adolescents, known as Community Partners with Schools (COMPASS). The COMPASS approach...

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Nurse-Family Partnership in the Canadian Context

2010/11 • $10,000 • PI,CO,Other
Child maltreatment is a major public health problem and affects at least one in three Canadian children. Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and other types of maltreatment often overlap in families. It is crucial to identify interventions that can effectively address multiple types. The...

Patents