Dr Lisa Golds

Innovation Fellow

Biography

Background

In 2024, I completed a PhD in Clinical Psychology focusing on "Exploring associations between maternal smartphone use and mother-infant synchrony from a dynamic systems perspective". I am currently an Innovation Fellow in the School of Health in Social Science, and sponsored by Edinburgh Innovations. My work continues to focus on parental smartphone use, the interactions between parent and infant, and how we can mitigate the risks of problematic smartphone use to enhance early relational health. 

 

Research summary

I am a developmental psychologist and my research interests have to date centered around early years and perinatal mental health and development. As well as maternal and infant mental health throughout the perinatal period, my main area of research focuses on parental smartphone use and its impacts on parent-infant relationships. To explore this concept further, I am interested in external risk variables which may cause problematic smartphone use in parents, such as demographic factors, or mental health and wellbeing. I am interested in both experimental and qualitative research which can help us to understand and mitigate the risks of smartphone use for parents and their children. 

 

Publications:

  • Reddish, A., Golds, L., & MacBeth, A. (2024). ‘It’s not all glowing and kale smoothies’: An exploration of mental health difficulties during pregnancy through women’s voices. Psychology and Psychotherapy; Theory, Research and Practice.
  • Golds, L., Gillespie-Smith, K., & MacBeth, A. (2024). Associations between maternal smartphone use and mother-infant responsiveness: A cluster analysis of potential risk and protective factors. Infant Mental Health Journal.
  • MacBeth, A., Christie, H., Golds, L., ... & Gillespie-Smith, K. (2023). Thinking about the next generation: The case for a mentalization-informed approach to perinatal and intergenerational mental health. Psychology and Psychotherapy; Theory, Research and Practice.
  • Clinkscales, N., Golds, L., Berlouis, K., & MacBeth, A. (2022). The effectiveness of psychological interventions for anxiety in the perinatal period: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychology and Psychotherapy; Theory, Research and Practice.
  • Golds, L., Gillespie-Smith, K., Nimbley, E., & MacBeth, A. (2022). What factors influence dyadic synchrony? A systematic review of the literature on predictors of mother-infant dyadic processes of shared behaviour and affect. Infant Mental Health. 43(5), 808-830. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.22011
  • Nimbley, E., Golds, L., Sharpe, H., Gillespie‐Smith, K., & Duffy, F. (2022). Sensory processing and eating behaviours in autism: A systematic review. European Eating Disorders Review. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.2920
  • Golds, L., De Kruiff, K., MacBeth, A. (2020). Disentangling genes, attachment, and environment: A systematic review of the developmental psychopathology literature on gene-environment interactions and attachment. Development and Psychopathology. 32(1), 357-381. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579419000142

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

Wellbeing, Smartphones and Interactions

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