ABSTRACT
The scientific study of developmental psychopathology represents one of the more significant new growth areas in psychology. According to Sroufe and Rutter (1984), developmental psychopathology weds the two traditional disciplines of developmental and clinical psychology. As such, it may be defined as “the study of the origins and course of individual patterns of behavioral maladaptation whatever the age of onset, whatever the causes, whatever the transformations in behavioral manifestation and however complex the course of the developmental pattern may be” (p. 18).
