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INTRO TO DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - 09/01/24

Why child developmental psychopathology?
● Some disorders are only diagnosed with childhood onset (ie: Autism, ADHD)
● Indicators of a significant emotional or behavioral problem may be different based on
developmental stages. The presentation of disorders might also change over time
● Developmental differences may lead to differences in efficacy in treatment (ie: CBT,
medication)
● Thinking about decision-making: Who advocates for youth? Who makes decisions
about whether or not something should be treated and what that treatment should
be?

Determining abnormality
1. Norm violations: an action that breaks or acts against something, especially a law,
agreement, principle, or something that should be treated. Norms depend on
reference groups.
2. Statistical rarity: How frequently do we see this behaviour in the population? Where
does it fall on the normal distribution (ie: poles)? Something may be a statistical
rarity, but may not cause impairment and vice-versa (ie: anxiety).
○ Notes about prevalence rates
■ Prevalence rates may not be consistent across different samples and
sources
■ Different sampling procedures
■ Different sample sizes and variability
■ Different reference groups/populations
■ Changes in population over time
3. Personal discomfort
4. Maladaptive behavior
5. Deviation from an ideal

Abnormality: A pattern of symptoms associated with distress, disability (ie: adaptational

failure) and increased risk for further suffering or harm.

Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST): Devised to provide a simple method of

screening for evidence of slow development in infants and preschool children. The test
covers four functions: gross motor, language, fine motor-adaptive, and personal-social.

Developmental psychopathology framework: Takes a broad approach to disorders of

youth and stresses importance of developmental processes and tasks. However, to
understand maladaptive behavior, one must view it in relation to what is considered
normative.

Broad prevalence
● Ontario Child Health Study
○ Children (ages 4- to 11-years): 18%
○ Adolescents (ages 12- to 17-years): 22%
● Great Smokey Mountains Study: Cumulative prevalence of any DSM diagnosis by
age 21 was 61.1%
● Dunedin Birth Cohort Study: 35% with any disorder by age 15, 59% by age 18
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Lifespan implications: Impact is most severe when

problems go untreated for extended periods of time. About
20% of children with the most chronic and serious disorders
face life-long difficulties. Lifelong consequences associated
with child psychopathology are costly to individuals and
health systems.

Inadequate services
● Lack of accessibility to mental health service
● Doctors are often first point of contact, not mental health specialists
● Racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service access and lower levels of use (ie:
geography, cultural sensitivity, adapted treatments)

Who Develops Psychopathology?

1. Gender (social and biological): Differences in timing and form.
a. Males show higher rates of disorders in childhood more often related to
externalising problems, like conduct and aggression disorders.
b. Females show higher rates of disorders in adolescence more often related to
internalising problems or eating issues.
2. LGBTQ+ Youth: Higher rates of mental health problems stemming from this
discrimination and maltreatment
a. More likely to be victimized by their peers and family members.
i. 81% experience verbal abuse
ii. 38% threatened with physical attacks
iii. 15% have been physically assaulted
iv. 16% have been sexually assaulted
3. Poverty and SES disadvantage: Yearly snapshots may underestimate the # of
youth who live in poverty. Poverty linked with higher rates of MANY disorders
a. 2017: 9% of Canadian children lived in poverty
4. Racial/Ethnic disparities in mental health
a. Many health disparities exist (not universal)
b. Canada not good at collecting/sharing racial health data, which obscures
possible disparities
c. Disparities NOT all attributable to SES differences
d. Black youth are more likely to be diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders
& psychosis & less likely to be diagnosed with mood and substance use
disorders. Phenomenon related to the school to prison pipeline and
representative of bias in diagnostic practices.
5. Culture: The meaning of behaviors and expression symptoms varies
a. Social anxiety: fear of evaluation by others
b. Taijin kyofusho: incapacitating fear of offending or harming others through
one’s social awkwardness
c. Racial/ethnic minority group members often reports physical symptoms when
there is underlying mental health problem (ie: “I’m having stomach aches”
instead of “I’m feeling nervous”)
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Diathesis-Stress Model: Some children are more susceptible (diathesis) to the negative
effects of a problematic environment (stress). Can be applied across disorders in different
fields (ie: diathesis for tooth decay or depression)
● Diathesis: underlying vulnerability or tendency
toward disorder could be biological, contextual,
or experience-based
● Stress: situation or challenge that calls on
resources typically thought of as external,
negative events
● Differential susceptibility: Some children are
more susceptible to the effects of their
environments, both good and bad

Example: Jason is a 6-year-old boy who has difficulty controlling his anger. He often lashes
out and becomes physically and verbally aggressive. At this school, some of the older kids
often pick on the younger ones. Jason is harassed several times one month, and responds
with physical aggression each time. As a result, he is picked on even more. Eventually,
Jason becomes very anxious about going to school.
- Diathesis: Difficulty controlling anger
- Stress: Getting picked on
- Outcome: School anxiety

Strengths of the Diathesis-Stress Model

● Organizes thinking about nature and nurture behavior & emotions are complicated
almost no disorders caused by “just” genes or “just” stress
● Brain changes (neural plasticity) in response to environment
● Genes change in response to environment (behavioral epigenetics)
● Simple foundation for complex theories diathesis ≠ disorder & stress ≠ disorder interaction
makes disorder more probable can have multiple interacting diatheses & stressors

Developmental pathways: The sequence and timing of particular behaviors as well as the
relationships between behaviors over time.
● Equifinality: Multiple stressors that produce a similar outcome/disorder
● Multifinality: One stressor that produces multiple outcomes/disorders

THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - 11/01/23

Etiology: the study of the causes of childhood disorders. Considers how multiple, interactive
causes help in understanding the complexity of disorders.

Developmental psychopathology perspective: Abnormal development is multiply

determined. Must look beyond current symptoms and consider developmental pathways and
interacting events.
● Transactional view: Children and environments are interdependent. Both children
and the environment are active contributors to adaptive and maladaptive behavior.
● Abnormal development involves continuities (ie: gradual, quantitative continuous
change in competencies) and discontinuities (ie: difference in kind; more abrupt,
qualitative changes in competencies; e.g. developmental milestones).
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● Organization of development: Early patterns of adaptation evolve with structure

over time. Development is influenced by sensitive periods and is a process of
increasing differentiation and integration where current abilities or limitations are
influenced by prior accomplishments.
● Sensitive periods: When the effects of experience are particularly strong on a
limited period in development.
● Integrative approach: No single theoretical orientation explains various behaviors or
disorders. Abnormal child behavior is best studied from a multi-theoretical
perspective, as knowledge increases through research.

Neurobiological perspective: All psychological disorders are rooted in the brain. The fetal
brain develops from all-purpose cells into a complex organ, dysfunction in any of the
systems or their structure causes disorder.
● Neural plasticity: The brain’s anatomical differentiation is use-dependent (ie: use it
or lose it). Nature and nurture both contribute and experience plays a critical role in
brain development.
● Gene-environment interaction (GxE): The expression of genetic influences are
malleable and responsive to the social environment (ie: stress). Genetic influences
are probabilistic, not deterministic and most forms of abnormal behavior are
polygenic.
● Behavioral genetics: Connections
between genetic predisposition and
observed behavior.
● Molecular genetics: Used to identify
specific genes for childhood disorders
● Neurobiological contributors:
Neurotransmitters make biochemical
connections. Neurons more sensitive to
a particular neurotransmitter then cluster
together and form brain circuits.
Neurotransmitters involved in
psychopathology include serotonin,
benzodiazepine-GABA, norepinephrine,
and dopamine.

Maturation of the brain: The following

represent sensitive periods in development.
● Areas governing basic sensory and
motor skills mature during the first 3
years of life
● Perceptual and instinctive centers are strongly affected by early childhood
experiences
● Prefrontal cortex and cerebellum are not rewired until 5 to 7 years old
● Major restructuring occurs from ages 9 to 11 due to pubertal development and again
in adolescence
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Psychological perspectives: Takes into account the transaction nature of development

and the role of emotional, behavioural and cognitive processes.
● Emotions play a role in establishing an infant's ability to adapt to new surroundings
(ie: where to direct attention; how to relate to others and maintain social
relationships; influences internal monitoring processes). They are core elements of
human psychological experience and a central feature of infant activity and
regulation, which are indicators of abnormality.
○ Emotion reactivity: individual differences in the threshold and intensity of
emotional experience
○ Emotion regulation: enhancing, maintaining, or inhibiting emotional arousal.
High self-regulation is a good formula for healthy, normal adjustment.
● Temperament: Organised style of behaviour that begins in infancy that shapes an
individual’s approach to their environment and vice versa. Early infant temperament
may be linked to psychopathology or risk conditions. The primary dimensions
(Rothbart) are as follows.
○ Positive affect and approach / ‘Surgency’
○ Fearful or inhibited / ‘Effortful Control’
○ Negative affect or irritability / ‘Negative affectivity’
● Behavioral and cognitive influences
○ Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): Based on ooperant learning principles of
positive and negative reinforcement + punishment + extinction
○ Classical conditioning
○ Cognitive theorists: How thought patterns develop over time
○ Social-cognitive theorists: Social cognition relates to how children think about
themselves and others. Focuses on models and ‘latent learning’