psychology, biology, and sociology.

Developmental psychopathology is an approach or field of study designed to better understand the complexities of human development. Its primary goal is to chart the diverse pathways individuals take in the development of psychological difficulties (e.g., aggression, depression, substance use) and normal or optimal psychological health (e.g., self-esteem, scholastic success, moral development). Several key questions guide developmental psychopathology. First, how are individuals similar to and different from each other in the healthy and maladaptive paths they take as they grow older? Second, what accounts for why individuals experience differences in psychological functioning over time? For example, what characteristics within (e.g., genes, personality, perceptions of relationships) and outside (e.g., family relationships, neighborhoods) the individual are responsible for similarities and differences in psychological development over time? Third, what consequences do people's histories of experiences, coping, and adjustment have on their subsequent mental health? Because developmental psychopathology, as an approach, is concerned with answering a broad set of questions, it can be usefully applied to a number of specialty areas in psychology, biology, and sociology. Developmental psychologists study the human growth and development that occurs throughout the entire lifespan. This includes not only physical development, but also cognitive, social, intellectual, perceptual, personality and emotional growth. By definition, risk factors increase the likelihood of experiencing psychological difficulties. Family risk factors include child maltreatment, parental rejection, lax supervision, inconsistent or harsh discipline practices, parental conflict, unsupportive family relations, and parental mental illness and substance use. However, exposure to even the most harmful risk factors does not doom all or even most children to a life of psychological problems. Also, children exposed to the same risk factor may have a range of healthy and maladaptive psychological outcomes. For example, although parental depression is one of the most robust risk factors, children of depressed parents exhibit a wide range of adaptive and maladaptive outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, aggression, academic problems) (Cummings and Davies 1994). Moreover, exposure to parental mental illness does not affect children in a psychological vacuum. Instead, parental psychopathology (e.g., depression, alcoholism) often co-occurs with other risk factors: familial (e.g., parenting impairments, marital discord, poor parent-child relations); sociocultural (e.g., poverty, community isolation); and biological (e.g., transmission of risk through the operation of genes, birth complications, temperament). These risk factors may contribute to the caustic effects of growing up in depressive or alcoholic families. Consequently, to better understand the development of psychological problems, developmental psychopathologists advocate moving beyond simply identifying individual risk factors that increase the likelihood of disorder to answer more complex questions of: When, how, and why do only some children exposed to risk develop problems? Mediating mechanisms. The search for mediators answers the question of "how" and "why" risk conditions lead to maladaptive outcomes. Mediators are the processes or mechanisms that explain or account for why family characteristics increase children's risk for psychopathology. Returning to the example of parental depression, a primary goal of a developmental psychopathologist would be to identify the mechanisms by which parental depression leads to child behavior problems. For example, parental depression is associated with increases in parental conflict and poor parenting practices. The stressfulness of experiencing parental conflict and poor parenting practices, in turn, may directly compromise children's mental health. It is also important to understand the mechanisms that underlie or account for the effects of mediating processes. For example, although the focus on parental conflict and poor parenting practices provide part of the answer to why parental depression is a risk factor, we are still not at the level of specifying the response processes in children that ultimately lead to disorder. For example, the stressfulness of parental conflict and poor parenting practices may negatively affect the way children function and cope in various settings (e.g., family, school) on a day-to-day basis. These daily difficulties in functioning in certain settings may eventually grow into disorders that are stable across time and setting. Moderating conditions. The search for moderators in models of risk answers questions of "who" is a greatest risk and "when" is the risk greatest. Thus, the assumption is that the likelihood that a risk factor leads to disorder varies across different individuals (i.e., who is at greater risk) and conditions (i.e., when is the risk greatest). Answering the question of who is at greatest risk involves searching for attributes of the person (e.g., gender, temperament, personality) that might amplify or increase the likelihood that they will experience a disorder when exposed to risk. For example, parental discord is especially likely to increase psychological problems for children who have difficult, rather than easy, temperaments (Davies and Windle 2001). Attributes outside the person (i.e., family, school, community, peers) may also intensify the effects of the risk factor. For example, Michael Rutter and colleagues (1976) found that the risk for psychopathology in children exposed to any one of six family risk factors (e.g., family discord, maternal psychiatric disorder, family dis-solution) was comparable to risk for children who experienced no risk factors. However, experiencing two or three risk factors increased the incidence of children's psychiatric problems threefold. Developmental Psychopathology - Resilience And The Role Of Protective Factors[next][back] Developmental Psychopathology - Risk And Resilience Developmental Psychopathology - The Transactional Nature Of Risk And Protective Factors familychildparentprocessreciprocal An assumption of developmental psychopathology is that humans are active agents in influencing their own development. Thus, children are not simply at the mercy of the family that raises them. Rather, the family is part of a transactional, developmental process that not only influences child development, but is also influenced by child development over time. For example, in explaining the development of childhood aggression, the early starter hypothesis stresses that the development of childhood aggression is set in motion by an escalating, reciprocal spiral of negativity and distress in the parent-child relationship rather than in the parent or child alone (Patterson and Yoerger 1997). In this reciprocal process involving an inconsistent parent and difficult child, the parent first responds to child misbehavior with aversive, hostile behavior. In reaction, the child, in turn, maintains or escalates the negative behavior. Sometime during this escalating cycle of negativity, the inconsistent parent eventually displays neutral or positive behavior toward the child as a means of escaping the aversive interaction. However, in the course of surrendering and ending the negative disciplinary bout, the parent inadvertently reinforces or encourages the intensification of child misbehavior. This process may eventually evolve into more persistent behavior problems. Thus, the development of mental health and disorder is an ever-changing product of the mutual, reciprocal influences between the child and his or her family and ecological setting. Developmental Psychopathology - Risk And Resilience From A Developmental Perspective [next][back] Developmental Psychopathology - Resilience And The Role Of Protective Factors Developmental Psychopathology - Conclusion gendertheoryfamilychildfamilypsychologychildren In conclusion, the developmental psychopathology perspective views adjustment and development as a dynamic, cumulative result of the reciprocal influences between child, family, and ecological characteristics across time. In studying family relationships, the developmental psychopathology approach highlights: (a) the complex, interdependent relations among different family characteristics and relationships; (b) the role ecological characteristics play in altering or affecting family relations (e.g., culture or subculture, peer relations, school); and (c) the multiple, developmental pathways taken by individuals and families across the life span. See also: ANXIETY DISORDERS; ATTACHMENT: PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS;ATTENTION DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD); CHILDREN OFALCOHOLICS; CONDUCT DISORDER; CONFLICT: PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS;CONFLICT: FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS; DEPRESSION: ADULTS; DEPRESSION: CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS; DEVELOPMENT: EMOTIONAL; DEVELOPMENT: MORAL; DEVELOPMENT: SELF; DISABILITIES; FAMILY DIAGNOSIS/DSM IV; FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY; INTERPARENTALCONFLICT—EFFECTS ON CHILDREN; INTERPARENTAL VIOLENCE—EFFECTS ON CHILDREN; MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME BY PROXY;OPPOSITIONALITY; POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER; SCHIZOPHRENIA; SCHOOL PHOBIA AND SCHOOL REFUSAL; SELF-ESTEEM;SEPARATION ANXIETY; SHYNESS; SUBSTANCE ABUSE; TEMPERAMENT Bibliography Baumrind, D. (1997). "Necessary Distinctions." Psychological Inquiry 8:176–182. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Campbell, S. B.; Cohn, J. F.; and Meyers, T. (1995). 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"Ethnic Differences in Adolescent Achievement: An Ecological Perspective." American Psychologist 47:723–739. PATRICK T. DAVIES E. MARK CUMMINGS SUSAN B. CAMPBELL [back] Developmental Psychopathology - Multiple Developmental Pathways Citing this material Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information. Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document. User Comments Name