ABSTRACT
The empirical studies are concerned with relatively small segments of the human life-span and are likely to be inspired by age-specific theories of psychopathology. The explicit reference to environmental events is intended to point out their relevance for the prospective study of historical or distal antecedent-consequent relationships in the development of psychopathology. A closer look at currently available theories of development suggests that developmental understanding of a phenomenon generally implies more than just specification of causal antecedent–consequent relationships. From a life-span developmental perspective any antecedent must be viewed as embedded within a larger developmental matrix and sequence of antecedents. The observation and identification of distal relationships is likely to be inversely related to the level of specificity at which both antecedents and consequents are measured; that is, the more specific the predictors and criteria are in terms of time and space, the less likely it will be to observe relatively strong distal relationships.
