This study explores patterns of self-regulation and emotional well-being among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon, employing a person-centered approach, responding to theoretical challenges articulated by Dante Cicchetti and other psychologists. Using latent profile analysis with data from 2,132 children, we identified seven distinct profiles across cognitive regulation, emotional-behavioral regulation, interpersonal regulation, and emotional well-being. These profiles showed significant heterogeneity in patterns of self-regulation across domains and emotional well-being among Syrian children. Some profiles consistently exhibited either positive (“Well-regulated and Adjusted”) or negative (“Moody and Frustrated”) functioning across all domains, while others revealed domain-specific challenges, e.g., particularly sensitive to interpersonal conflict. This heterogeneity in the organization of self-regulatory skill and emotional well-being challenges the traditional homogeneous view of child development in conflict settings. The study also underscores the profiles’ differential associations with demographic characteristics and experiences, with school-related experiences being particularly salient. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research in developmental psychopathology on self-regulation and emotional well-being in conflict-affected contexts. In addition, we advocate for tailored interventions to meet the diverse needs of children affected by conflict.

This reflection on the history and future of developmental resilience science (DRS) highlights its co-emergence with developmental psychopathology (DP), as well as the roles of this journal and its founding editor, Dante Cicchetti, in the evolution of these intertwined domains of scholarship. A remarkable constellation of scholars at the University of Minnesota shaped the course of both conceptual frameworks and their dissemination. I describe fundamental assumptions common to DP and DRS frameworks that reflect their common roots and the pervasive influence of systems theory on developmental science. I describe four waves of DRS and key principles of DRS at the present time. In conclusion, I consider the possibility that a fifth wave of DRS is emerging with a focus on understanding patterns of multisystem, multilevel processes of resilience and their implications for interventions in the context of interacting, interdependent, and complex adaptive systems. I close this commentary with questions for future research and a hopeful outlook on the future of human resilience.

Resilience research has long sought to understand how factors at the child, family, school, community, and societal levels shape adaptation in the face of adversities such as poverty and war. In this article we reflect on three themes that may prove to be useful for future resilience research. First is the idea that mental and physical health can sometimes diverge, even in response to the same social process. A better understanding of explanations for this divergence will have both theoretical and public health implications when it comes to efforts to promote resilience. Second is that more recent models of stress suggest that stress can accelerate aging. Thus, we suggest that research on resilience may need to also consider how resilience strategies may need to be developed in an accelerated fashion to be effective. Third, we suggest that if psychological resilience interventions can be conducted in conjunction with efforts to enact system-level changes targeted at adversities, this may synergize the impact that any single intervention can have, creating a more coordinated and effective set of approaches for promoting resilience in young people who confront adversity in life.

Research on serious mental disorders, particularly psychosis, has revealed highly variable symptom profiles and developmental trajectories prior to illness-onset. As Dante Cicchetti pointed out decades before the term “transdiagnostic” was widely used, the pathways to psychopathology emerge in a system involving equifinality and multifinality. Like most other psychological disorders, psychosis is associated with multiple domains of risk factors, both genetic and environmental, and there are many transdiagnostic developmental pathways that can lead to psychotic syndromes. In this article, we discuss our current understanding of heterogeneity in the etiology of psychosis and its implications for approaches to conceptualizing etiology and research. We highlight the need for examining risk factors at multiple levels and to increase the emphasis on transdiagnostic developmental trajectories as a key variable associated with etiologic subtypes. This will be increasingly feasible now that large, longitudinal datasets are becoming available and researchers have access to more sophisticated analytic tools, such as machine learning, which can identify more homogenous subtypes with the ultimate goal of enhancing options for treatment and preventive intervention.

The seminal contributions of Dante Cicchetti to the field/paradigm/metaparadigm of developmental psychopathology (DP) – and its continuing ascendance as a guiding force for multidisciplinary investigation of normative and atypical development – are legion. Our aim is to illustrate a number of DP’s core principles in the context of (a) prospective longitudinal research on children (particularly girls) with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and (b) theoretical and empirical work dedicated to alleviating the stigma and discrimination toward those experiencing mental health, substance use, and neurodevelopmental challenges. We feature (i) the mutual interplay of perspectives on normative and non-normative development, (ii) reciprocal and transactional processes, and the constructs of equifinaliy and multifinality; (iii) continuities and discontinuities in developmental processes and outcomes, with particular focus on heterotypic continuity; (iv) the inseparability of heritable and environmental risk; (v) multiple levels of analysis, and (vi) the benefits of qualitative perspectives. We highlight that interventions promoting recovery, along with the multi-level facilitation of protective factors/strengths, lie at the heart of both DP and anti-stigma efforts. The ongoing youth mental-health crisis provides a sobering counterpoint to the gains of the DP enterprise over the past half century.

Dante Cicchetti has had a lasting impact on our understanding of the development of externalizing psychopathology through at least two seminal contributions, including establishment of the field of developmental psychopathology and assertion of the hypothesis that early physical abuse and neglect trigger a cascade of maladaptive outcomes across the life course. These ideas have guided a program of research on children’s deviant social information processing and defensive mindset as the psychological mechanisms through which early physical abuse leads to long-term psychopathology. Longitudinal studies following children from early life through mid-adulthood show that physical abuse in the first five years of life leads children to adopt a defensive mindset that, in turn, cascades into long-term outcomes of externalizing psychopathology, incarceration, and dysfunction. Cicchetti’s ideas have also guided the development of preventive interventions to interrupt this life course.

Dante Cicchetti’s earliest work, his studies of social-emotional development in infants and children with Down syndrome, set the stage for the emergence of the larger field of developmental psychopathology. By applying basic developmental principles, methodologies, and questions to the study of persons with Down syndrome, Dante took on the challenge of searching for patterns in atypical development. In doing so, he extended traditional developmental theory and introduced a more “liberal” approach that both continues to guide developmentally based research with persons with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs), including Down syndrome. We highlight five themes from Dante’s work: (1) appreciating the importance of developmental level; (2) prioritizing the organization of development; (3) examining whether developmental factors work similarly in those with known genetic conditions; (4) rethinking narratives about ways of being; and (5) examining the influence of multiple levels of the environment on the individual’s functioning. We highlight ways that these essential lessons anticipated present-day research with persons with a variety of NDCs, including Down syndrome, other genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability, and autism. We conclude with visions to the future for research with these populations as well as for the field of developmental psychopathology more generally.

As part of the special issue of Development and Psychopathology honoring the remarkable contributions of Dr Dante Cicchetti, the current paper attempts to describe the recent contributions that a developmental psychopathology perspective has made in understanding the development of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems over the lifespan. The paper also identifies some of the future challenges and research directions. Because the scope of this task far exceeds the confines of a journal length article this paper does not attempt a comprehensive review. Rather, it builds on an earlier review and commentary that was published in Development and Psychopathology in 2013, with a similar goal.)Building on that work and updating its conclusions and suggestions for future directions, the current paper emphasizes findings from the research areas that were identified for further study in 2013 and the findings that have been published since that time.