ABSTRACT
What is Developmental Psychopathology? ......................................................... 6 Principles of Developmental Psychopathology .................................................. 7
The Interplay Between Normal and Abnormal Development ...................... 7 The Role of Prior Development in Current and Future
Adaptive or Maladaptive Processes ........................................................... 8 The Importance of a Life Span Perspective ................................................... 9 Developmental Pathways: Diversity in Process and Outcome...................... 9 Contextual Infl uences ................................................................................... 12 Resilience ....................................................................................................... 14 Multiple Levels of Analysis .......................................................................... 15 Translational Research .................................................................................. 18
Prevention and Intervention ............................................................................. 19 Conclusion and Implications ............................................................................ 22 References .......................................................................................................... 23
A developmental psychopathology perspective can help to elucidate the understanding of depression in adolescence. Such an approach espouses the viewpoint that in order to comprehend the genesis and epigenesis of adaptation and maladaptation, it is essential to understand the integration of diverse biological and psychological systems at multiple levels of complexity within individuals over the course of development. The developmental psychopathology position challenges researchers investigating adolescent mood disorders to move beyond identifying isolated cognitive, social-cognitive, affective, interpersonal, and biological aberrations in depressive presentations in adolescence, to understanding the processes by which these components have evolved and are integrated within and across the biological and psychological systems of the depressed adolescent embedded within a multilevel and dynamic social ecology (Cicchetti & Toth, 1995, 1998; Masten, 2006).
