Multilevel Dynamics in Developmental Psychopathology

This latest volume in The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology Series highlights recent research across multiple levels of analysis to understand processes that shape development toward and away from behavioral problems and disorders over the life course, including the pathways to mental health. The book examines how dramatic advances in technologies for research on gene-environment interaction, brain function, and the interactions of individuals in larger systems, have changed the study of human behavior and development, and in so doing, transformed both theory and practice in developmental psychopathology. In particular, the book reviews how research on the human genome, geneenvironment interactions, brain imaging, stress, and social networks have changed our understanding of problems and resilience in development. Featuring contributions from leading researchers in developmental psychopathology, this volume presents integrative thinking and research across several levels of analysis and disciplines. The first three chapters highlight the interactions of biology and context in development, reviewing the latest work on genes-environment interplay in development, and how disorders arise from interactions of biological susceptibilities and exposure to pathogenic contexts. The next three chapters focus on social dynamics of children in families and peer groups, and how these social interactions shape and regulate behavior. Resilience processes are discussed, as well as the implications of research on peer dynamics for prevention, school policies, and treatment. Longitudinal research on depression is examined in relation to the interplay of vulnerability, context, stress, and cognition in development. The book concludes with an illustration of the challenges and benefits of encompassing multiple levels of analysis in a single research program. Ideal for researchers and advanced students in developmental, clinical, and educational psychology, Multilevel Dynamics in Developmental Psychopathology provides a tantalizing preview of the future of this multidisciplinary science and its applications. This book illuminates the roads leading to more cohesive research on positive as well as pathological development, across levels of analysis and disciplines, and its potential for prevention and treatment.

Ann S. Masten

Contents: Preface. Rutter, Gene-environment Interplay and Developmental Psychopathology. Hanson, Gottesman, Choreographing Genetic, Epigenetic, and Stochastic Steps in the Dances of Developmental Psychopathlogy. Boyce, A Biology of Misfortune: Stress Reactivity, Social Context, and the Ontogeny of Psychopathology in Early Life. Egeland, Understanding Developmental Processes of Resilience and Psychology: Implications for Policy and Practice. Fiese, Spagnola, The Interior Life of the Family: Looking From the Inside Out and the Outside In. Dishion, Piehler, Peer Dynamics in the Development and Change of Child and Adolescent Problem Behavior. Garber, Depression in Youth: A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective. Cicchetti, Valentino, Toward the Application of a Multiple-Levels-of-Analysis Perspective to Research. Sroufe, Commentary: The Place of Development in Developmental Psychopathology.