Development and Mental Health

This program emphasizes research on the interplay between biological, psychological, and social factors in the development of mental health and in the etiology of psychopathology. The long-range goal is to understand the origins of maladaptive behavior patterns in order to design preventive intervention programs that promote mental health across the lifespan.   

The specific objectives of this research program are:  

• To provide more effective ways to identify children, adolescents, and young adults with mental health problems;
• To identify early biological and personality characteristics that lead to mental health problems; and 
• To identify family and social factors that promote or limit mental health with a special focus on parent cognition -- their beliefs, attributions, and working models.

Current Projects:  

• Family Stories Project: The Strengths-based Adoptive Family Initiative
• Michigan Family Study: Preventing Mental Health Problems in Multi-Risk Families
• Michigan Longitudinal Study: Social Risk and Self Regulation Problems in Early Childhood
• Rochester Longitudinal Study: Risk and Protective Factors in the Transition to Adulthood
• Special Moms Special Babies: Intervention for Irritable Babies with Depressed Mothers

Arnold Sameroff, program director, has made major contributions to understanding children's mental health and psychopathology in the context of family and community. Twenty-two center research projects currently relate to this research program and are linked conceptually and methodologically around the concept of self-regulation. Self-regulation and its disturbances are studied from infancy, when biological self-regulation is dominant, through childhood and adolescence, when self-regulation of emotion and self-control become increasing concerns. Methodologically, the studies involve longitudinal design and data analysis. A major achievement of the last five years was the establishment in 2000 of an NIMH-funded research center, the "Center for Development and Mental Health."